Human impacts on the natural resources

60 communities are situated around Armando Bermúdez National Park mainly to the north, northeast and east. Over two third of them have a direct impact on the natural resources of the national park as a result of their location and economic activities of the inhabitants (MCP HER-SON 2007). Standard of living in the villages in the Sierra is low and the generation of a rea-sonable income is difficult. The educational infrastructure and health care are poor and only a few communities count on electricity (Table II.2). Thus, migration out of the area to Santiago de Los Caballeros, Santo Domingo and even to the USA is high. Nearly all of the communi-ties visited on the field trips have a negative migration rate for the time span between 1999 and 2011 (Table II.2). Positive numbers were just recorded in the villages Los Ramones and Arroyo Bonito/Los Montazos Abajo where intensively managed Caturra coffee (Coffea ara-bica var. caturra) plantations have been expanding during the last years. Mainly Haitian workers attend the plantations.

Due to the low monetary resources and precarious health system in the Sierra, plants are fre-quently used to cure diseases. 93 plants of the area are reported to have a medical use or value (PEGUERO 2007). The most important medical plants are: Cymbopogon citratus, Chenopo-dium ambrosioides, Mentha spicata, Citrus aurantium, Ocimum sanctum, Tetragastris balsa-mifera, Ambrosia artemisifolia and Ocotea foeniculacea.

The main impacts on the natural resources of Armando Bermúdez National Park are caused by agriculture, extensive livestock-grazing, felling of trees, hunting, wild fires, hurricanes and visitation.

Small scale agriculture and the cultivation of coffee have a long tradition in the Sierra. The main agricultural products are sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas), beans (Phaseolus spp.),

ma-ize (Zea mays), manioc (Manihot esculenta), tannia (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) and pumpkin (Cucurbita spp.). The traditional coffee (Coffea arabica var. tipica) is managed under shade trees in the Sierra such as the mountain immortelle (Erythrina poeppigiana), the Spanish oak (Inga vera) or orange tree (Citrus sinensis) in association with banana bushes (Musa spp.) (SECRETARÍA DE ESTADO DE MEDIO AMBIENTE Y RECURSOS NATURALES 2004b). Before the establishment of the national park all of these products were grown on conucos in areas which belong today to Armando Bermúdez National Park. Besides the traditional Arabic coffee the improved Caturra coffee is cultivated for exportation. Caturra is mainly grown without shade trees and with a high input of agro-chemicals, contaminating the rivers and soils.

A constant threat for the conservation of protected areas is the agriculture of the shifting cul-tivation type. Besides the loss of diversity provoked by the slash and burn agriculture, erosive processes are favored leading to reduced soil fertility and increased sedimentation (KAPPAS &

SCHÖGGL 2005) of the water reservoirs. MARTIN et al. (2004) found out that life-form diversi-ty was higher on old growth forest than on secondary forests in Armando Bermúdez National Park.

Extensive livestock grazing is also a problem in Armando Bermúdez National Park. Near La Ciénaga, La Diferencia and Los Ramones grazing cattle and goats were observed during field work. The main problem of cattle grazing inside the national park is the possible introduction of exotic and invasive alien (plant) species (IAS). IAS are non-indigenous species that could spread out rapidly and aggressively when introduced beyond their normal range and displace the indigenous species of the protected site (TU 2009). Worldwide IAS are recognized as a threat to biodiversity as they can cause habitat loss and fragmentation. The existence of Psi-dium guajava – although not an IAS - in the national park is a result of extensive grazing.

Furthermore erosive processes are favored.

Illegal felling of trees went on until the last sawmills were closed in the 1990s. Today the bad practice is not wide-spread, but still exists. On a field trip to El Piquito close to La Diferencia recently precipitated trunks were detected of Pera bumeliifolia and Podocarpus hispaniolen-sis (Photo II.1). Other trunks of Pera bumeliifolia with considerable diameters had already been marked for future felling. Logging of species such as Podocarpus can cause substantial changes to forest structure (DOUMENGE et al. 1995). Besides illegal felling, illegal hunting is difficult to control by the park management. Sus scropha and Solenodon paradoxus are hunted for their meat and birds are captured to be sold as pets on the markets in Navarette, Villa de los Almácigos and Santiago de los Caballeros (mainly Buteo jamaicensis, Mela-nerpes striatus and Amazona ventralis).

TABLE II.2. Number of families and infrastructure in villages around Armando Bermúdez National Park

Source: *MCPHERSON (2007), ** Information collected on field trips from 2006-2011, n. a.: Data not available Communities 1999* 2006** 2011** Distance to

ABNP (m)

Infrastructure**

Number of families Electricity School Health care

“Central Zone”

PHOTO II.1. Felled Pera bumeliifolia and Podocarpus hispaniolensis inside of Armando Bermúdez National Park (El Piquito, La Diferencia, 1,123 m a.s.l.)

Fires are caused in Armando Bermúdez National Park by lightings or by humans to improve fodder for domestic animals or facilitate hunting. As the soils for agriculture are prepared dur-ing the dry season, locally intended fires can spread over to the dry natural vegetation and become difficult to control (Photo II.2). While mature pine trees are well adapted to fire and shrub taxa at high elevations have a high resprouting ability (HORN et al. 2001), cloud forests in the Cordillera Central are only poorly adapted to fire (MAY 2000a).

PHOTO II.2. Pine forest after wild fire (around Valle de Tetero, 1,900 m a.s.l)

Badly managed recreational activities in protected areas can lead to contamination of the wa-ter, extraction of the flora, introduction of invasive species, disturbance of the fauna and ero-sion of the trails. Annually between 3,000 and 4,000 national and international tourist visit Armando Bermúdez National Park (SECRETARÍA DE ESTADO DE MEDIO AMBIENTE Y R ECUR-SOS NATURALES 2011). Knowledge about the impact of visitation on the natural resources of the national park does not exist.