Dominican Republic's Conservation Effort
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In this May 22, 2012 photo, a worker walks through an agricultural area of a forest in San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic. Conservationists are establishing a sanctuary here that they say will be like no other in the Dominican Republic, blending sustainable agriculture with preservation on former pasture land at the edge of a cloud forest that will help protect a songbird called Bicknell's thrush which migrates each year from the northeastern U.S. and southern Canada. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)
FILE - In this July 2005 file photo released by the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, a Bicknell's thrush perches on East Mountain in East Haven, Vermont. The songbird that wings its way each year from austere mountaintops of the northeastern U.S. to the steamy forests of the Caribbean has inspired the creation of what conservationists hope will be a new model for nature reserves in the Dominican Republic, a country that has long struggled with deforestation. (AP Photo/Vermont Center for Ecostudies, Steven D. Faccio, File)
In this May 22, 2012 photo, a house stands at the end of a road in a forest in San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic. Conservationists are establishing a sanctuary in this area that they say will be like no other in the Dominican Republic, blending sustainable agriculture with preservation on former pasture land at the edge of a cloud forest that will help protect a songbird called Bicknell's thrush which migrates each year from the northeastern U.S. and southern Canada. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)
In this May 22, 2012 photo, a worker shovels cocao beans, the raw material in chocolate, as they dry in the sun in San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic. Conservationists are establishing a sanctuary here that they say will be like no other in the Dominican Republic, blending sustainable agriculture with preservation on former pasture land at the edge of a cloud forest that will help protect a songbird called Bicknell's thrush which migrates each year from the northeastern U.S. and southern Canada. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)
In this May 22, 2012 photo, Leoncia Batista looks through the window of her house located inside a forest area in San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic. Conservationists are establishing a sanctuary in this area that they say will be like no other in the Dominican Republic, blending sustainable agriculture with preservation on former pasture land at the edge of a cloud forest that will help protect a songbird called Bicknell's thrush which migrates each year from the northeastern U.S. and southern Canada. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)
In this May 22, 2012 photo, Luis Duarte fills bags with soil in an agricultural area of a forest in San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic. Conservationists are establishing a sanctuary here that they say will be like no other in the Dominican Republic, blending sustainable agriculture with preservation on former pasture land at the edge of a cloud forest that will help protect a songbird called Bicknell's thrush which migrates each year from the northeastern U.S. and southern Canada. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)