Leatherback sea turtles could be getting the boot from one of their favorite nesting beaches in the U.S. Puerto Rico's Northeast Ecological Corridor is in jeopardy of losing its designation as a nature reserve if developers get their way.
Reinstate the Designation of the Northeast Ecological Corridor as a Nature Reserve
Dear [Decision Maker],
I am writing to urge the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to reinstate the designation of Puerto Rico's Northeast Ecological Corridor (NEC) as a Nature Reserve and reverse its decision to open this extraordinary ecological area to residential and tourism developments. In addition, I am writing to formally request that the U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) evaluate the recent actions of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico as U.S. tax-payers dollars were used in past land acquisitions within the NEC with the sole objective of managing these lands as a Nature Reserve.
The 3,000 acre NEC is one of the Caribbean's great biodiversity hotspots. The NEC is the second most important nesting site for critically endangered Leatherback sea turtles in the U.S. It also supports an extraordinary array of tropical habitats seldom found in other parts of the world--from coral communities, mangrove and coastal pre-Columbian forests, a bioluminescent lagoon, which are home to more than 50 rare, threatened, and endemic species.
The NEC's importance extends to other nearby sites such as El Yunque National Forest, the only tropical rain forest managed by the U.S. Forest Service. This federal agency has publicly stated that the NEC's conservation as a nature reserve is vital to protect the ecological integrity of El Yunque National Forest from the pressures of urban encroachment.
The NEC was finally designated as a nature reserve in April 2008, more than three decades after it was originally proposed by the Puerto Rico Coastal Zone Management Program in 1978. In addition, local agencies presented a comprehensive land use and management plan for the NEC during various public hearings in order to establish clear guidelines for the development of outdoor recreational and ecotourism facilities in the area. These actions were endorsed by a wide array of Commonwealth and Federal agencies, local community groups and conservation organizations in the U.S. and around the world. The U.S. Department of the Interior and NOAA have also supported these efforts by assigning more than $3 million in funding for the acquisition of private lands in the NEC, as a means of strengthening its conservation as a natural protected area.
In spite of this extraordinary conservation story, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Hon. Luis Fortu%uFFFDo, in an unprecedented action in the history of Puerto Rico, eliminated the designation of the NEC as a Nature Reserve in its entirety last October 30, 2009 to make way for the construction of residential-tourism projects, a shopping center and a road.
