ABSTRACT
The Dominican Republic faces a devastating natural resources management problem. Small hillside farmers have destroyed natural perennial groundcover by planting short-cycle crops on slopes which often surpass 100 percent. Attempting to subsist in harsh economic circumstances, they have little alternative but to farm fragile land in an erosive manner. The Dominican government, with assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development, launched the Natural Resources Management (NARMA) project to identify ecologically sustainable and economically feasible strategies for utilizing the county's resources. Gary Kemph and Abel Hernandez provide a step-by-step account of NARMA's accomplishments and those of preceding projects. Through careful planning and intelligent implementation, NARMA's philosophy, "conservation is production," is being put into practice.
