Legal and Policy Framework as it Pertains to Puerto Rico Coastal Vegetative Wetlands

Luis Villanueva-Cubero, University of Puerto Rico, luis.villanuevacubero@upr.edu (Presenter)
Mei Yu, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, meiyu@ites.upr.edu

As wetlands were in a process of aggregation despite the strong interference due to coastal development throughout the 20th Century after the decline of large-scale sugar-cane agriculture, we propose that the laws and regulations relative to wetland protection played an important role in their increased coverage. To test our hypothesis, we first compared the fragmentation between wetlands within protected areas and those outside; then we did a thorough review of laws and regulations relative to wetlands at different legislative and jurisdictive levels; we analyzed the wetlands protected historically by comparing to the historical protected area networks; and finally we compared the laws/regulations on wetlands implemented historically with the wetlands protected historically to explore their relationships.

Although the protected areas only occupy 8% of the land in Puerto Rico, about 40% of coastal wetlands are protected. The estuarine and marine wetland has much higher percentage of protection than the freshwater emergent wetland has. The fragmentation of wetlands inside the protected areas is much lower than that of wetlands outside, which supports our hypothesis of the role of laws/regulations on wetlands aggregation. The analysis of wetlands protected historically revealed a shift of the protected areas to the coastal regions, which are mostly wetlands, since 1970s. Therefore, the wetlands have received increased protection significantly since then, especially the estuarine and marine wetlands.

The review of laws and regulations historically also showed a policy shift to the priority of wetlands protection. And this policy shift synchronized with the dynamics of wetlands protection, which further supported our hypothesis of the impacts of policy shift on wetlands dynamics. As 14% of the Puerto Rico Coastal Zone is comprised of non-protected wetlands, as the PR government strives to increase its number of protected areas, it is this region that should be the focus of attention.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Theme 2: Landscapes to coasts: understanding Earth system connections   (Mon 1:30 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Yu, Mei: Vulnerability and adaptive management of tropical coastal wetlands ...details

Poster Location ID: 103