Decision environment for cropland ecodevelopment in Peravia Province, Dominican Republic

Abstract

The study explores the operational components of the decision environment for cropland ecodevelopment in the Dominican Republic. The purpose is to understand the structural and functional elements of those components better and to integrate them into a decision framework that would effectively and efficiently minimize the existing constraints while optimizing the opportunities for cropland ecodevelopment. In order to understand the decision environment for cropland ecodevelopment, the decision environment is subdivided into an infrastructural decision environment and a rural decision environment. The decision environment for cropland ecodevelopment is approached in several stages: First, by a literature review of the conceptualizations and operationalizations pertaining to ecodevelopment of cropland; second, by elaborating upon the methodological problems of those conceptualizations and operationalizations in countries such as the Dominican Republic where economies of scarcity prevail; third, by building an operational framework of a decision environment that minimizes present and potential constraints for cropland ecodevelopment while maintaining or improving the living standards of the Dominican population; fourth, by relating Peravia Province's cropland experiences to those of the regional and national levels; and fifth, by an overall consideration of the manner in which nations such as the Dominican Republic should deal with the present renewable natural resource situation while preserving options for maintaining and improving living conditions for present and future generations. Data for this study were obtained from national, regional and provincial government documents and private publications. Additional data were obtained by conducting two surveys. The first survey focused on public and private administrators who share national, regional, provincial and local responsibilities in the planning and implementation of cropland ecodevelopment policies; the second focused on the rural citizens. Both surveys elicited answers to socioeconomic, perceptual and behavioral questions. Questions about the perception of the work that public and private agencies are doing in the study areas were also included...