Illegal Deforestation: Death By a Thousand Cuts Al Jazeera
go to original May 5, 2017

In 2012, Eligio Eloy Vargas, nicknamed Melaneo, a park ranger in a Dominican National Park was found murdered with a machete.

At the time, he was on patrol investigating an illegal charcoal production site run by Haitians coming across the border into a protected Dominican forest.

His murder becomes the starting point to investigate the larger story of increasing tension between Haiti and the Dominican Republic over illicit charcoal exploitation and mass deforestation: the alleged murder weapon itself being the same tool used to chop down Dominican trees by the thousands.

With stunning cinematography, Death by a Thousand Cuts investigates the circumstances of Melaneo's death and the systematic eradication of the Dominican forests. The film interweaves the many sides of the story of Melaneo's murder told through his Haitian wife, his brother, a local reporter and a park ranger.

Environmental activist Yolanda Leon helps reveal the complex web of relationships in which the people living on the border find themselves.

Read the rest at Al Jazeera

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