The Dominican Republic’s Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources said that the DR’s country’s forest cover is at 33%, which places the Dominican Republic as one of the four Latin American and Caribbean Countries with a higher than average number in that area.  The DR also has the second fastest reforestation rate. Mr. Ramirez said that they plant from 7 to 10 million trees per year and that in reforestation their experts use 28 native and endemic tree species including Mahogany (National tree of the Dominican Republic) and Melina among them.