Misión Industrial de Puerto Rico
En Defensa de los Recursos Naturales
P.O. Bax 363728, San Juan, PR 00936

PRESS RELEASE

February 14, 2005

Pritzker-Hyatt clear cuts mature coastal forest grown on white sands

Environmentalists and Dorado grassroots denounced Hyatt's indiscriminate tree logging and disrespect for Puerto Rico's natural resources at the Pritzker-Hyatt hotel chain's 2,000 acres oceanfront Dorado Beach Hotel and exclusive residential complex. This former estate of ecologically conscious Clara Livingstone is located along the precious Sardinera Bay that has been home to marine turtles, manaties, coral reefs, commercial fish species, brown pelicans and other endangered species. The picturesque bay has been bordered by a pterocarpus forest reserve and mature forests on white sands which have become rare to Puerto Rico's coasts and include endangered plant species. Over the years, the forests have been dramatically reduced through selective logging for hotel and residential luxus villa construction and changes in drainage conditions mainly caused by the increasing cement cover and extensive golf courses.
Hidden behind abundant shoreline vegetation, Hyatt has been logging and triturating four acres of trees that form part of a larger forest area, supposedly to expand its golf course. Yet the area just happens to be the very place where Hyatt has proposed to site the inland part of a mega yacht complex to harbor 125 yachts between 50 and over 80 feet long, the so called Cala Turística de Dorado, which has received strong opposition by neighboring residents and environmental organizatios throughout Puerto Rico.
Endorsement for the logging seems to have been a last minute present from the outgoing Rosselló administration in December 2,000 and has been silently extended ever since. Hundreds of Dorado residents who use the public Sardinera Beach for daily walking and jogging and the environmental watchdog Misión Industrial have been cuestioning and protesting Pritzker-Hyatt's selfdefeating destruction of subtropical natural resources, patrimony of the people and Puerto Rico's prime tourism attraction.
It has not only been clear cutting of unique forest areas but also disturbing marine turtle nesting through flood lighting, irresponsible mecanical cleaning of the public beach, flogging and paving of dunes, polluted storm water discharges from golf courses, among others. Once in a while, Hyatt responds for a couple of days to people's claims and legal threats, but than it goes on with business as usual.
Marianne Meyn