page_title: Northeast Ecological Corridor
section_title: Legislative and legal action
hierarchical_section_title: Northeast Ecological Corridor / Preservation campaign and conservation efforts / Legislative and legal action
caption_attribution_description: English: Grand Northeast Ecological Reserve. Proponents argue that this plan will protect a wider area in order to maintain connectivity with El Yunque National Forest. Detractors state that while some of the "newly protected areas" already enjoy protected status, are flood-prone areas, or already constructed, 450 cuerdas will have their protected status rescinded. Español: Gran Reserva Corredor Ecológico del Noreste. Los proponentes aseguran que este plan protegerá mas areas para mantener conectividad con El Bosque Nacional de El Yunque. Los detractores aseveran que mientras algunas de las "nuevas zonas protegidas" ya gozan de proteccion o son areas inundables o ya construídas, se le quita la protección a 450 cuerdas de la reserva original.
context_page_description: The Northeast Ecological Corridor Nature Reserve refers to an area designated as a protected Nature Reserve located on the northeast coast of Puerto Rico, between the municipalities of Luquillo and Fajardo. Specifically, the lands that comprise the NEC are located between Luquillo's town square to the west and Seven Seas Beach to the east, being delineated by PR Route # 3 to its south and the Atlantic Ocean to its north. It was decreed as a protected area by former Puerto Rico Governor Aníbal S. Acevedo-Vilá in April 2008, a decision reversed by Governor Luis G. Fortuño-Burset in October 2009, although he later passed a law in June 2012 re-designated as nature reserve two-thirds of its lands, after intense lobbying and public pressure. Later, in 2013, Governor Alejandro García-Padilla signed a law declaring all lands within the NEC a nature reserve. The area comprises 2,969.64 acres, which include such diverse habitats as forest, wetlands, beaches, coral communities, and a sporadically bioluminescent lagoon.
context_section_description: Although there were plans to officially establish in the NEC a permanent reserve as well as plans to establish eco-hospices, bicycle trails and access to beaches, a proposed bill that would create a nature reserve (PR Bill 2105 of 2007) would give the government and concerned groups only eighteen months to acquire privately owned lands within the Corridor.  In the case that the lands could not be acquired, the natural reserve designation would be rescinded.  Considering these amendments to be "poison pills", former Governor Aníbal S. Acevedo-Vilá decided to veto the law and instructed, by means of Executive Order OE-2007-37 on October 4, 2007, the PR Planning Board to establish a nature reserve, edit a draft for the Land Use and Management Plan as well as to delineate the reserve's borders.  The PR Planning Board approved in its Resolution No. PU-02-2008-24(23) on February 6, 2008 the limits for the NEC and on April 24, 2008 Governor Acevedo-Vilá signed Executive Order OE-2008-22 which officially established the Northeast Ecological Corridor Nature Reserve. The decision was later reversed by Governor Luis G. Fortuño-Burset via OE-2009-42 on October 30, 2009.
  In 2011 the Puerto Rico Planning Board announced plans to approve the Grand Northeast Ecological Corridor Reserve Special Planning Area.  Although the Fortuño Administration insisted that it was protecting more areas than the original 2,970 acres included in the reserve, environmental activists point out that more than 437 acres of the originally designated areas had their protected status rescinded. Furthermore, some of the areas under the Special Planning Area constituted part of existing reserves or within floodplains where construction would be prohibited regardless.
  Since some of the proposed residential and tourist projects would be built in public lands, the members of the Coalition for the Northeast Ecological Corridor decided to shift their lobbying efforts towards the protection of these government-owned lands administered by the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, the Puerto Rico National Parks Company, the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company and the Puerto Rico Land Authority. To this effect, PR Senators Lorna Soto-Villanueva, Larry Seilhamer-Rodríguez, Luz M. Santiago-González, and Roger J. Iglesias-Suárez submitted on September 22, 2011 Senate Bill 2282 which was unanimously approved by the Senate on April 23, 2012 with all senators as co-authors. On May 21, 2012 the bill was approved by the House of Representatives with no opposition, and after some minor amendments, it was sent to the Governor for signature on June 18, 2012.  The bill was turned into law with the signature of the Governor of Puerto Rico, becoming Law No. 126 of June 25, 2012, creating a nature reserve in all public lands within the Northeast Ecological Corridor, which cover 1,957 acres or 66% of its original designated area.  Upon change of administration in the 2012 November elections, lobbying efforts for protection of the entire Corridor intensified, leading to the signing of Law No. 13 of April 13, 2013 by Governor Alejandro García-Padilla.
  Since its establishment, the Coalition's litigation efforts have been directed by the University of Puerto Rico's Environmental Law Clinic under Pedro Saade Llorens, Esq., one of Puerto Rico's first environmental lawyers. The Clinic's free and volunteer legal services have been instrumental in the Coalition's campaign strategies to assure that the Dos Mares and the San Miguel Resorts did not acquire government permits to commence construction. All environmental or land use permits that were awarded by government agencies to these projects were challenged in courts that until January 2012 always ruled in favor of the Coalition. Until that date, both projects did not have a single environmental or land use permit approved due to, among other actions, a lawsuit filed by the non-profit Initiative for a Sustainable Development against the Puerto Rico Planning Board. On January 4, 2012 the Puerto Rico Appeals Court i
caption: The Grand Northeast Ecological Reserve Special Planning Area. Proponents argued that this plan would protect a wider area in order to maintain connectivity with El Yunque National Forest. Detractors stated that while some of the "newly protected areas" already enjoyed protected status, were flood-prone, or already constructed, on the other hand 437 acres (177 hectares) would have their protected status rescinded.
exif: {}