With the objective of promoting a collective effort to generate environmental awareness and turn sustainability into culture, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MMARN) is holding the “Environment and Citizenship” fair, in alliance with the Ágora Mall.
At the inauguration of the fair, the Minister of the Environment, Miguel Ceara Hatton, thanked the receptiveness of the mall for offering its central atrium for the development of this activity that promotes citizen education as a tool for transformation.
“Since our arrival at the ministry, we have raised the need to turn sustainability into a culture. This implies that people internalize, conceptualize, and be aware of what sustainability implies,” Hatton emphasized.
After inviting the public to visit the fair, the Minister of the Environment recalled that the Dominican population has an active role in the protection of natural resources: “to defend our rivers, our mountains, our sea, from which we live”.
“The only way we can really confront the issue is to change coercion into conviction, and that implies an educational process,” he said.
“We human beings have made tremendous changes. And we have moved from coercion to conviction on many issues,” he added.
“We human beings made mistakes in the last 200 years and now we have to change reality. We have to learn to coexist with nature. And that’s why we do this kind of activities here, to educate. And we have to do it all over the country and go on a pilgrimage throughout the nation, sending this message and educating people, so that they learn to live with nature, without trying to subjugate it,” he said.
At the inauguration of the fair were present, Daryelin Torres and María del Carmen Vargas, directors of Environmental Education and Social Participation of MMARN, respectively. Also, Rocio Sanchez, marketing manager of Agora Mall.
In addition, Yvonne Arias, executive director of Grupo Jaragua; Samuel Sena, president of the Economic and Social Development Council of Santo Domingo; Dolores Sánchez, president of Fundación Avanzar; Raquel Cueto, director of Alliances and Communications of Nature Power Foundation, and Porfirio Peralta, general director of the National Council for the Promotion and Support of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (Promipyme).
Daryelin Torres said that the experience of visitors to the fair represents what Medio Ambiente does throughout the year. “We have participated in Jarabacoa, in the Flower Fair; in the Santiago Rodriguez fair; recently we were in Isla Saona, and the Book Fair. All this that you will see here is part of what supports us in taking different messages to different groups, which is what we do in the Environmental Education Directorate,” he said.
Meanwhile, María del Carmen Vargas, thanked Ágora’s administration. She highlighted that Environment guarantees citizen collaboration, establishing areas of citizen linkage, which allow for greater co-responsibility and rapprochement with citizens.
“During the course of these three days we will have conferences and workshops at the fair, given by specialists and technicians from our institution,” she said.
Rocío Sánchez emphasized the importance of the population being aware that the way in which they live their daily lives has a direct impact on the environmental footprint created as a nation. “Families can gradually implement, in each household, more responsible decisions to care for the environment.”
“To achieve this, education, both to our employees and tenants, as well as to our visitors, customers, suppliers and other allies, is a fundamental tool to turn them into spokespersons who in turn can continue the process of dissemination, to increase collective awareness of environmental issues and bring these messages to the largest number of citizens,” he said.
“In Agora Mall we become a sounding board and a great showcase through which about 20 thousand people pass daily, to whom we can impact with these messages,” said Sanchez.
The “Environment and Citizenship” fair raises awareness of the importance of environmental protection and conservation in daily life. From October 2 to 4, on level 1 of Agora Mall, educational activities designed for all ages will take place.
Through graphic elements, scenography and the activities that will take place within the framework of the “Environment and Citizenship” fair, the general public will be able to learn about the services and news offered by MMARN, information on protected areas and national parks.
The interaction and learning space is intended to strengthen the relationship with citizens, to promote environmental responsibility and to make known the role of MMARN as the governing body for the management of ecosystems and natural resources.
Source: presidencia.gov.do
