Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a mountainous tropical country located on the border of the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that shares the island of Hispaniola with its neighbor to the west, Haiti. The country’s land area is approximately 48,442 square kilometers with 9.65 million inhabitants (USDS, 2010). The country’s workforce is highly dependent on the services sector, being comprised of the tourism, transportation, communications and finances industries (USDS, 2010). A further 11.5 per cent are employed in construction, 11.3 per cent in agriculture, and 1.5 per cent in mining. The country’s per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is approximately US$4,815 (USDS, 2011), contributing to the Dominican Republic’s status as the second poorest nation in the Caribbean.

Like most countries in Latin America, the Dominican Republic has submitted one national communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with a second one under preparation. Land use change and forestry are large contributors to GHG emissions within the sector. The emission reduction potential is large and several reforestation programs have been initiated. The Dominican Republic does not count with CDM projects in the agricultural sector, thus carbon trading opportunities can be explored. Agriculture is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, this coupled with problems of land degradation in the country. A greater emphasis on developing and applying adequate insurance mechanisms can be placed for better management of public resources in light of natural disasters in the agriculture sector.

On the adaptation side, the focus is on the potential to build resilience to climate and to increase the adaptive capacity through sustainable management of agriculture and other complementary factors (e.g. financial instruments).