ADVANCING EFFECTIVE CONSERVATION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

With over 26% of its land under some form of protection, the DR has one of the most ambitious protected area systems in the world. My 20+ year journey over land and sea trying to achieve effective conservation of these places, their threatened species, and also fighting for other high biodiversity areas has not been an easy one. Despite many setbacks, there have been bright moments and we are starting to see some promising signs. I will share some of these experiences and draw key lessons learned. Hopefully, this will help colleagues in similar contexts achieve effective biodiversity conservation on the ground and develop our own Caribbean conservation community of practice.