2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWELVE - Conservation (§§ 1-16 — 8162) › Subtitle 2 - Forests (§§ 121-128 — 217b) › Chapter 15 - Forest Act of Puerto Rico (§§ 191 — 204) › § 200 - Auxiliary Commonwealth Forest

(a) Classification of land; tax exemption.— The Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources is hereby authorized to classify as Auxiliary Forests, at the request of the landowner, private lands that exceed five (5) cuerdas in the bordering land area devoted exclusively to the production and development of forests for purposes other than the production of coffee, fruits or other edible produce.
Auxiliary forest land shall be exempt from property taxes and the income proceeding from the sale of forestry products from those forests classified as auxiliary forests shall be exempt from the payment of income taxes.
The application for the certification of an Auxiliary Forest shall be submitted to the Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources in the manner prescribed by him/her.
This application shall contain a description of the land, its location, boundaries, area and any other information that may be required by the Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources. The Secretary, upon receipt and review of the application, at his/her discretion and if he/she should deem that the case warrants it, shall direct that the land be inspected by a Forest Service technician who shall render a report upon whose receipt and consideration, the Secretary shall decide whether or not said lands should be included in the aforementioned classification. If in the affirmative, he/she shall so notify the Secretary of the Treasury who shall then order that the exempted area be deducted from the assessment of the land where the Auxiliary Forest is located, for the purpose of preparing the corresponding tax receipts. The Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources shall not classify any land whatsoever as an Auxiliary Forest until the landowner has agreed in writing that he/she shall attend to, care for and maintain the Auxiliary Forest according to the instructions of said official.
The aforementioned tax exemption shall last while the Auxiliary Forest is preserved as such. Said property shall be inspected at least once a year to determine whether the landowner is complying with the agreement. Should the landowner fail to comply with the agreement, the Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources shall exclude the land from its classification as an Auxiliary Forest and shall so notify the Secretary of the Treasury so that he/she may then proceed to collect the corresponding taxes prospectively, except when the Auxiliary Forest has not been preserved for a full fiscal year. In that case the corresponding tax shall be collected through the issuing of a supplementary tax receipt.
(b) Terms of agreement.—
(1) The minimum term for maintaining an Auxiliary Forest as such shall not be less than one full fiscal year.
(2) The timber produced in the Auxiliary Forests shall be the exclusive property of the landowner. He may at any time remove or cut down trees or parts of trees exposed to fire, or which have fallen or are broken or injured by any natural cause; he may, in a rational manner, do the necessary cleaning of the property and remove those varieties of undesirable trees and he may use whenever necessary, the timber which may be needed for use on the property for general purposes. To this end, the Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources shall provide, through the Forest Service, the necessary technical assistance.
(3) The landowner shall submit to the Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources a plan for forest protection and management which shall be considered and evaluated before the land is certified as Auxiliary Forest. This Management Plan shall form a part of the agreement.
History —July 1, 1975, No. 133, p. 393, § 10; Aug. 7, 1998, No. 190, § 4.