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) › § 193 - Public lands for Commonwealth Forests

(a) The Governor, with the recommendation of the Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources, after a public hearing of the interested parties, may from time to time, designate as Commonwealth Forests any Commonwealth land which he may deem is more suitable for forestry purposes than for other purposes, including tax title lands.
(b) The Governor, with the recommendation of the Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources and of the Environmental Quality Board, and after public hearings, may revoke, modify or suspend any order or proclamation which designates such lands as Commonwealth Forests, whenever such lands are to be used for any essential public use, and only if there are no other more suitable alternatives for using other lands that are not Commonwealth Forests, for such purpose. In such cases in which land must be transferred from the Commonwealth Forest system to be used for some other purpose of public utility by another agency or instrumentality of the Government, as indicated, the system shall be compensated as may be determined by the Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources either with an area of at least equal value suitable to forestry or by monetary compensation on the basis of its fair market value. The amount of such monetary compensation shall be entered into the Forestry Development Special Fund created herein, and it shall be used solely and exclusively for the acquisition of forest lands which shall form a part of the Commonwealth Forest System.
(c) The Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources, on behalf of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, may acquire by purchase, donation, legacy, exchange, condemnation or otherwise, from any natural or juridical person, agency, instrumentality or municipality of the Commonwealth or of the United States Government, such lands which because of their location, physical, topographical or geological characteristics are essentially valuable for forestry use including the development and protection of hydrographical basins, erosion and recreation control or forest administrative purposes. Lands already acquired or which may be acquired for forestry purposes shall be designated Commonwealth Forests.
Nothing herein contained shall be construed in the sense of interfering or being in conflict with any vested right by virtue of any grant or grants, lease or leases, license or licenses appertaining to or concerning any government land or water rights or right of way that may hereafter be made. Any title or interest in any such lands designated or acquired in accordance with this chapter may not be acquired by any government or municipal agency or entity by condemnation proceedings in the exercise of said right of eminent domain against the Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in regard to all lands included in said forests.
(d) The Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources shall have under his custody and control all the Commonwealth Forests. He shall take care, custody of and manage them, shall enforce the provisions of laws and regulations relating to the Commonwealth Forests, shall prosecute the violators thereof and shall maintain and improve the Commonwealth Forests in order that they may provide the products and services herein set forth in harmony with the public policy established.
(e) The Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources may and is hereby authorized to require the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works, when the public interest so requires, to proceed to demarcate, set landmarks on any Commonwealth Forest or of any tract, parcel or limit of land acquired as Commonwealth Forest land under any of the provisions of this chapter, and it shall be the duty of the above-named official to comply with such request; Provided, That no duplication of work shall be caused by such demarcation. The cost of such demarcation shall be defrayed from the then current legislative appropriation for the carrying out of the general purposes of this chapter or from any other moneys available for expenditure by the Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources for such purpose.
History —July 1, 1975, No. 133, p. 393, § 3.