On September 11th 2014 the IV Dominican Republic Environmental Film Festival (DREFF) was inaugurated in San Juan de la Maguana. The opening was a huge success with the Centro Cultural Monina Cámpora completely packed. More than 200 people attended the event and enjoyed the screening of “Extinction in Progress” followed by an interesting and active panel discussion on Haitian main environmental challenges.

Panelists included Jurgen Hoppe, Director of the documentary, Anderson Jean and Maxon Fildor representing Haitian scientists working towards their country’s biodiversity conservancy, and Carlos Martínez from the Philadelphia Zoo, who participated in the project captured by the film. “People are responsible for the world’s loss of biodiversity. We can all collaborate with simple actions in our daily lives to preserve our natural resources” commented Carlos Martínez“We need immediate action to stop Haiti’s biodiversity loss. It is a priority” were a few of the comments made by Jurgen Hoppe, Director of “Extinction in Progress”.

Anderson Jean, biologist and representative of Societé Audubon du Haití answered a question of the audience with the following expression: “Haitian government is making some efforts to stop the more than 100 years deforestation in my country, but the solution is very slow. It is a very complex political, economical and social problem”.

For more information on “Extinction in Progress” visit: http://www.muestracinemedioambientaldominicana.org/extincion-en-progreso/?lang=en