Puerto Rico Gov. Renews Threat to Critical Habitat

Just a year after a critical Leatherback Turtle nesting site was declared a nature reserve, Puerto Rico’s governor now wants to cancel that designation to make way for a massive new development.

Gov. Luis Fortuno, just 10 months in office, announced on Oct. 30 that he was cancelling the nature reserve designation of a 3,200-acre area just north of the Yunque National Forest, the only rain forest in the U.S. National Forest System. Proposed development for the area includes four golf courses, two resort hotels, and 4,500 residential and tourist housing units. Gov. Fortuno is the first Republican governor of Puerto Rico in 40 years, and is a former director of tourism for the Caribbean island. Former Gov. Anibel Aceveda Vila designated the parcel as part of the Northeast Ecological Corridor, protecting it from all but small-scale, ecologically-responsible development. More than 50 rare, threatened and endangered species have been documented there, including the critically endangered Leatherback Turtle, which nests along its sandy shores. The Leatherback is the largest of all sea turtles, and has been on the U.S. Endangered Species List since 1970. They average between one and two meters in length, and 250 to 700 kg in weight. With continued loss of habitat, populations of the turtle have dropped dramatically, Current worldwide estimates of nesting females range from 25,000 to 45,000. As recently as 1980 that number was believed to be 115,000. Environmental groups including the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, Environmental Defense Fund, along with support from the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had lobbied for over 10 years to get the protections in place. Environmentalists are once again rallying, this time in an attempt to block Gov. Fortuno’s cancellation of the protective measures.