Dominican Republic strengthens ties with Italy and launches sargassum initiatives

Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader and the Italiano-Latino American Institute (IILA) are strengthening bilateral cooperation across strategic sectors. Key areas of collaboration include security, restorative juvenile justice, science and technology, sustainable agriculture, and cultural heritage protection. Scientific cooperation with the Italian Space Agency is also being utilized to monitor sargassum levels.

Addressing the environmental challenge of sargassum, the Dominican Republic has introduced the ‘Santo Domingo Ministerial Declaration on Sustainable Sargassum Valorization.’ This initiative seeks regional Caribbean coordination to transform the seaweed into resources for energy, agriculture, and industry through a circular economy model. The Dominican Senate is also reviewing legislation to declare sargassum a national and regional environmental emergency.

Local initiatives are supporting these efforts, such as the Fundación Grupo Puntacana’s program that employs local fishermen to collect sargassum at sea using technology developed by MIT. This method aims to protect tourism and create new value chains from the collected biomass.