INTEC Research Director advocates greater business investment to develop research on sargassum

THE ALTAGRACIA. Bill director of investigations of the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), Charles Sanley, advocated because they are inverted more economic resources or are established that motivate the business sector a invest en university research seeking solutions to the problem of sargasso.

By participating in the event “Collaboration as a unifying force to solve the great problem of sargassum in the Caribbean through research and development, education and community empowerment”Organized by the Terra & Marre Foundation, SOS Carbon and UK Embassy In the Dominican Republic, the INTEC teacher assured that there is no single solution for the subject of sargassum, nor will there be a "Magic wand" make it disappear. In this sense, he indicated that sargassum is a global problem and "until it is seen as such, we are not going to move forward, we are just going to put up with it," he indicated during his speech.

In the activity, which was headed by Ambassador Mockbul Ali OBE, and Andrés Bisonó León, president of SOS Carbon and the Terra y Marre Foundation, Sanlley pointed out that the first to warn about the problem posed by sargassum was the tourism sector and the Second were the universities.

“In 2012 we went from INTEC to different representatives of the private sector telling them that we could support them in finding a solution to the problem, but nothing came of it. It was not until 2015, when this huge tide came, that the tourism sector said yes, we need help, and at that time, the entrepreneurial sector was involved in parallel with companies like SOS Carbon”, he recalled.

Sanlley pointed out that there was a gap in seeing sargassum as a problem or as an added value. “That blank space, which was initially empty, is what the universities try to fill by promoting projects through innovation, the creation of technology, creating knowledge… in the academy we carry out research, education and outreach”.

The professor appreciated that the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources organized the multi-sector table for sargassum, and indicated that prior to this, the universities had a work table in which they exchanged information about their research, in addition to establishing links with academies from other nations. like Mexico and Puerto Rico, where they also face the same difficulties with sargassum. 

"We educate about the problem, because 12 years after the arrival of sargassum, there is a lot of misinformation, and we link the company with the academic sector to reach all that periphery and convert sargassum from a problem to a raw material to produce . There is a whole world that we can produce, those are projects that are already running in the Caribbean,” Sanlley specified.

In the event that was moderated by Ulises Jauregui-Haza, coordinator of the doctorate in Environmental Sciences and of the Interdisciplinary Group for Research on Sargassum (GIS) of INTEC, the issue of sargassum was addressed from the perspectives of the international community and regional union; from an NGO, from the tourism sector, academia, from the Ministry of the Environment and National Resources of the Dominican Republic and from the perspective of the coastal community.

During his speech, Bisonó León pointed out that, hand in hand with the Punta Cana Group and the Vice Ministry of Coastal and Marine Resources, SOS Carbon managed to export five containers of fresh sargassum to Finland.

SOS Carbon, an organization founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), seeks efficient and sustainable solutions to the problem represented by sargassum invasions on the Caribbean coasts and beaches, focuses on environmental sanitation by collecting sargassum while it is still at sea.

He also specified that they work with more than ten companies internationally, and, in fact, with an Australian company they develop bioplastic based on sargassum.

The event was attended by Vice Minister of Coastal and Marine Resources, José Ramón Reyes, Vice President of Sustainability of the Punta Cana Group, Jake Kheel y Elena Martínez, Director of Research and Development at SOS Carbon, among other experts.