Join In with Fun and Meaningful Activities at the III Dominican Republic Environmental Film Festival, 4-8 September 2013

Santo Domingo, September 3, 2013

During the III DR Environmental Film Festival on September 4-8, 2013, participants will have a unique opportunity to take an active role in furthering the festival’s objectives aimed at awareness-raising among people in the DR about the importance of preserving and protecting the environment. To this end, GFDD and FUNGLODE have organized three main activities that include; a beach cleanup on September 4; an environmental excursion to El Mogote in the Cordillera Central mountain range on September 7; and a reforestation activity in Monte Plata on September 8.

The beach cleanup activity has become a core part of the festival since the I DR Environmental Film Festival in 2011, when a group of students, in collaboration with a local nonprofit organization called Vida Azul, and the Deputy Ministry of Coastal and Marine Resources, collected garbage from Montesinos beach in Santo Domingo. The activity took place again in 2012, during the II DR Environmental Film Festival, when the cleanup activity took place at Guibia Beach. The garbage collected in both activities was later used in recycled art workshops realized at the festival, to further increase awareness about the benefits of environmental protection and preservation. This year’s activity will take place on September 4 and brings together environmental film makers present for the festival with likeminded individuals willing to volunteer for this activity that aims to urge the Dominican people and visitors alike to pay attention to their environment and the disastrous effects that garbage has on marine life and the environment. To find out more about the issue of waste management you are encouraged to attend a screening of the film Trashed during the III DR Environmental Film Festival.

A total of 125 young people will be selected from the 500 students that took part in the GFDD and FUNGLODE’s five Pico Duarte expeditions to take part in a mountain environmental excursion on September 7. The excursion, which is also being held in collaboration with the Vida Azul Foundation, is entitled “El Mogote Cleanup Environmental Excursion”. The students selected for this expedition will first camp out at the American School of Santo Domingo, where a screening of Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey will be held. The screening will be followed by a discussion about mankind’s impact on the environment. The following morning, the students will be taken to the Jarabacoa Municipality in in the Cordillera Central mountain range where they will begin a clean-up operation that will take them all the way to the summit of “El Mogote”. During this excursion students will have the opportunity to discover some stunning views of the Dominican mountain range together with a variety of fauna and flora. To find out more about humanity’s effect on this planet, please attend the main screening of Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey during the III DR Environmental Film Festival.

The reforestation activity will take place on Sunday, September 8, in collaboration with the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources. The activity is a daytrip to the degraded farm lands of Monte Plata (1 hour north of Santo Domingo). Upon arrival at the location, participants will undertake a reforestation activity planting trees that are endemic to the Dominican Republic. This activity symbolizes the spirit of the festival, as it seeks to offset the emission involved with the festival and regenerate the Dominican environment in the process.

For more information about the activities, films and the program, which are all free of charge, please visit the festival official website at www.dreff.org.

About the III DR Environmental Film Festival:
The DR environmental film festival, which is hosted in the Dominican Republic on September 4-8, 2013, aims to raise awareness and deepen the understanding of environmental issues among Dominican audiences. The Festival seeks to promote dialogue and inspire Dominican audiences to adopt practices that will ensure the country's environmental sustainability and health. As part of this objective, it seeks to provide youth and general audiences the opportunity to watch the best and most beautiful, informative and educational environmental international films of the year, to learn about the pressing issues, to appreciate and value the diversity and beauty the country has to offer and, hopefully, inspire greater environmental stewardship. Screenings will take place in different locations across the country.

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