Santo Domingo.- La Vega province (central) deputy Elpidio Infante submitted a bill that seeks to create the Loma Miranda National Park, the same region which Xstrata Nickel plans to mine.

The initiative aims to protect water sources, biodiversity, ecosystem and landscape integrity, mitigate the impacts of global warming and climatic change.

It would also preserve the intrinsic potential of natural resources and environments can ensure intelligent use and exploitation by Dominican society, through ecotourism, recreation and environmental education.

If passed into law, Infante’s legislation stipulates that a co-op would manage the park, to include organizations, non-government agencies and the churches, who’ve been actively working against Xstrata Nickel Falcondo’s mining project.

The piece also notes that the environment and natural resources form essential assets through which nature guarantees survival.

Infante’s initiative notes that while mining produces great wealth in the short and medium term, its profits could never offset the dire affects on the natural resources and the ecological and social footprints it leaves behind.