DR Environmental Film Festival Will Organize Expedition to Pico Duarte for 45 Dominican Students

New York, March 21, 2012

The Dominican Republic Environmental Film Festival (DREFF), an initiative of Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) and its sister institution in the Dominican Republic, Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE), in partnering with Dominican mountaineers Karim Mella and Federico Jovine, to organize the first-ever educational expedition to Pico Duarte in the Dominican Republic, to take place April 2-5, 2012.


The innovative initiative reflects DREFF's overall mission to interact with leading figures in the environmental community and to make a difference. The Festival aims to raise awareness and deepen understanding of environmental issues among Dominican audiences. At the same time, the Festival celebrates the beauty and diversity of the Dominican Republic's natural heritage and offers insights intended to contribute to its appreciation, conservation and sustainable use.

GFDD and FUNGLODE are very excited about this first excursion – an outcome of the first edition of the Dominican Republic Environment Film Festival, celebrated in September 2011, and the resulting national and international network that emerged.

The expedition will provide young Dominican students the opportunity to become familiar with the summit and the mountain habitat, and their relationship with nature. GFDD and FUNGLODE hope that this momentous experience will live in the hearts and minds of the student participants long after the expedition, and will instill within them a profound respect for the natural environment and its resources.

The excursion will include lectures by participating teachers on a diversity of subject matter, including the geography of the Cordillera Mountain Range, rivers, fauna, flora, the climate of the Dominican Republic, environmental protection, forest fires, reforestation and first aid.

This first excursion will be open to high school seniors from the following high-schools: Centro de Excelencia Media Profesora Cristina Billini Morales "Fe y Alegria", Centro de Excelencia República de Colombia, and Centro Educativo República de Guatemala. Forty-five students and nine teachers in total will participate in the expedition. Students were selected based on their ability to express in writing the importance of forests and natural resources in the Dominican Republic.

Students and educators will be under the able direction of expedition director, Karim Mella. The team will also be comprised by 20 other staff members, including GFDD representatives, an assistant to the director, a doctor, a cook, a photographer and 10 volunteers.