RESTORING CARIBBEAN WATERSHEDS

WATER After decades of deforestation, the Dominican Republic's watersheds are under strain. These areas drain into the rivers and lakes that provide water to more than 60 percent of the country.

- Patricia Karounos

Along with a lack of water-storage infrastructure and low rainfall, this has led to drought.

Santo Domingo-based Francisco Núñez has made it his mission to restore these watersheds. He is leading reforestation efforts through the Nature Conservancy, an international nonprofit, as the director of their Central Caribbean Program. How do trees help? They support the retention of water in the ground, which then gets filtered into the watersheds.

The group hires local farmers and cattle ranchers to plant trees. As of mid2023, Núñez estimates that over 3,000 hectares had been reforested. (The goal is to plant 10,000 hectares over the next 10 to 15 years.) The project also teaches the farmers about sustainable practices that reduce tree-clearing.

After an especially severe drought in April 2023, the Dominican Republic's government signed an agreement with the World Bank to curb deforestation.

Núñez says he hopes to see similar agreements worldwide. "It's time to restore and give nature what we have taken from it."