SWOT Analysis: Threats

Free Market Competition: In the last decade, the Dominican Republic has entered into free trade agreements with the US and Europe.  While free trade offers opportunities to access new export markets and less expensive imports, it also posses special problems for the developing countries that have fewer resources than their more developed trade partners.  Competition is increased substantially, reducing the commercial viability of traditional products.  When it becomes less expensive to import a product than to produce it locally, the local producer must switch to a more globally competitive crop or face great economic hardship.

Natural Disasters:  The Dominican Republic is subject to earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters that can destroy crops and livelihoods.  There is little insurance against such disasters, and experts predict weather-related disasters will only increase as global climate change accelerates.

Resource Degradation: Impoverished farmers must often make hard decisions between surviving for the time being, and protecting the productivity of the land for future generations.  During economic hard times, farmers may opt to deforest their land for timber money, plant inappropriate crops, or manage their crops in an unsustainable way.  Unfortunately, all of these activities lead to soil erosion and degradation, which seriously jeopardize future production.  Pollution is also a threat.  Agrochemical runoff, human and animal wastes, and trash are serious problems for rural areas and cities alike. This pollution leads to illness, decreases the local quality of life, and discourages tourism.

Increasing Land Prices:  As more and more Dominicans flock to crowded, dirty cities, the wealthiest of these residents are building villas in rural areas.  Although this development can employ people in building the houses and supplying them with high-quality furnishings, the local residents of these rural areas may suffer from skyrocketing land prices.  In some areas, this process of rural gentrification threatens to shut poor farmers out of their traditional hometowns. 

~Alexa