Environmental justice: Pre-trial detention imposed on two men for deforestation in Valle Nuevo
The Judicial Office of Permanent Attention Services of San José de Ocoa ordered three months of preventive detention against Juan Encarnación and Nery Encarnación, who face charges for the alleged illegal logging and destruction of natural resources in the Valle Nuevo National Park.
The measure was requested by the Public Ministry, through the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Defense of the Environment and Natural Resources (Proedemaren). During the hearing, prosecutor Ramón Emilio Calderón argued that the gravity of the facts and the lack of sufficient ties to the community of the defendants justified the imposition of preventive detention as a coercive measure.
Environmental damage details
According to the court file, the defendants allegedly devastated about 30 “tareas” of land in the Yuna sector, specifically in Loma La Placeta, an area belonging to the municipality of Rancho Arriba. Environmental authorities stressed that this illegal intervention caused significant damage to the local flora, affecting various native and endemic species, among which the following stand out:
- Cabirma santa
- Pino macho
- Yagrumo
- Cigua
- Gmelina arborea
- Manacla
- Gina
Valle Nuevo National Park is a strategic asset for the nation due to its role as a water reservoir, which is why these types of crimes against the ecosystem are treated with the utmost legal rigor to safeguard the integrity of our protected areas.
Legal implications
The judicial process is based on the alleged violation of multiple national regulations, including the Constitution of the Dominican Republic, the General Law on Environment and Natural Resources (No. 64-00), the Sectoral Forestry Law (No. 57-19), and the Sectoral Law on Protected Areas (No. 202-2004).
Magistrate Jorvy Armando Sánchez Eusebio, in charge of issuing the resolution, ordered that the defendants serve the precautionary measure in the public jail of Baní, in the Peravia province, while the investigation process continues for the environmental crimes committed in this buffer zone.
