USAID/UNF/ICRAN Alliance for the Tourism and Marine conservation: 

Highlighting the competitiveness of Tourism in the Dominican Republic

January 2005- December 2008

Reef Check Dominican Republic

Associates: Association of the Romana Hotels Bayahibe,

Dominican Foundation Pro-Investigation and Conservation of the Marine Resources, Inc. 

(MAMMA), Marine Biology Investigations Center (CIBIMA)

Summary of the project:

The network of international action of coral reefs (ICRAN), based on the year 2000, and is an effort of contribution to stop and to revert the decline of health of the coral reefs everywhere. ICRAN was founded by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), World Fish Center (previously ICLARM), World Resources Institute (WRI), UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Center (WCMC), Global Choir Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), International Choir Reef Initiative (ICRI) Secretariat, Choir Reef Alliance (CHOIR) and the South Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP). These associates founders of the public sector and private united in response to a "call of action" of the international Initiative of coral reefs (ICRI) to help to implement a "framework of work for act", "the international agreement for the conservation of the coral reefs"

The Foundation of the United Nations (UNF) has provided support since the start of ICRAN, during

 the initial phase, with additional help granted for the program of ICRAN phase of action for four years. 

In support to the Alliance for the Tourism and Marine Conservation of the Caribbean conducted by ICRAN associated to Reef Check, the UNF has promised the financing to undertake the activities related to highlight the competitiveness of the tourism in Dominican Republic.

Given the strong interest of the United States Government in the Caribbean and in the development of the alliances of the private sector, in the context of the Agency for the International development of the United States (USAID), Global Alliance of Development in September of the 2004, the UNF and ICRAN requested to the USAID additional financing to complete this important effort.  The funds provided by the USAID and UNF are utilized to support Alliance to highlight the tourist competitiveness and marine conservation with UNF and USAID.  This alliance will permit to USAID to add new associates and international experts to the region of the Caribbean to promote projects that prompt the economy and the protection of the strategic coral reefs creating commitment with the private sector worried about the tourism in the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean in general. 

USAID and UNF/ ICRAN have agreed to plan together the program of activities of the Alliance for the competitiveness of tourism in the Caribbean and the Marine Protection. USAID and UNF have established that the organization that will manage the Project inside ICRAN will be Reef Check Foundation.

This help was required in response to the report of USAID/ Chemonics 2000 “competitive strategy for the Dominican Republic”: “our primary goal is for the year 2010, Dominican Republic becomes the most competitive market and turistic center of the Caribbean and Central America...”  The report also highlights that for us to reach certain goal the country most “offer a product with more value and maintain the offers, to serve richer market segments, to help diverse the existing production and develop advantages” Finally we can see the need to adopt better international practices.

The proposal of the Project will enriched greatly the competitiveness of tourism in the Dominican Republic (DR) and will help to protect invaluable marine resources.

1.       Offering a higher value to the services and turistics products.

2.       Offering products and unique services, not available in other destinies.

3.     Giving to the local tools of monitoring to give greater understanding and conscience of the resources used to survive, consequently can offer services of greater quality. 

4.     Adopting better international practice respecting the environment by the initiative of Blue Flag. (www.BlueFlag.org)

The tourism in the Dominican Republic depends on clean beaches, crystalline water and healthy coral reefs, which produce the white sand of our beaches, protect the coast of the erosion, they are a source of very important food and they are a great potential market of 20 million divers and bathers. The Dominican Republic has not worked satisfactorily to reach the diving market to a great scale. Mean while experimented divers position the Dominican Republic chorales with more qualities than the chorales from Puerto Rico, The Virgin Islands and Belize.

The Foundation Reef Check joins strategic local associates to obtain a goal in common: enlarge the tourist quality, employing it as a sustainable financing for the conservation of coral reefs.  The educational program of Reef Check complements the European Beach Blue Flag Program for the Hotels that are located in beaches; this program was adopted by the Association Conservation of the Caribbean in the 2003. Reef Check program includes training and educational kits. The program includes 5 levels to train and give knowledge about coral reefs and to promote the participation in the activities of monitoring of Reef Check global. The profits produced by the sales of tourism are used to support the program of national monitoring and to coach local residents from the the community.

Reef Check develops a program of appropriate training for RD, provides workshops of training for coaches, and produces kits of training in various languages that will be sold in the hotels, diving centers, and cruisers lines.  The training and the kits will be sold by detail or in packages all included.  The incomes of the sale al wholesale will be used to finance the program without end of gain Reef Check Dominican Republic while the incomes of the sale by detail will be for the hotels and centers of diving as an incentive.  Reef Check works jointly with the government to create damaged coral reefs rehabilitation projects and to help to implement management approved activities.  The Dominican Republic will be the first country to implement this type of program in the world and play an important role in the tourism of diving, and the education and conservation of marine resources in the Caribbean.