Habitat Categorisation Certification: the DRNA paper that goes with your permit

It is the document required by Chapter 9.13 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, titled Habitat. The chapter is adopted under and in harmony with Act 241-1999, the New Wildlife Act of Puerto Rico, as amended, to establish the processes to follow in evaluating wildlife habitats. The determination of the categorisation and potential mitigation for modifying natural habitat is made under the categories established in Act 241-1999 and in the Regulation Governing Wildlife Conservation and Management, Exotic Species and Hunting, and the Regulation Governing Vulnerable and Endangered Species, both in force. This guide covers the procedural side: which paper to get and where it goes. The habitat categories themselves, the three-to-one compensation and the ban on modifying essential critical natural habitat come from Act 241-1999 and have their own guide on this site, read from the Act itself.

It applies to every natural or juridical person proposing to carry out any work, development or construction that does not constitute a categorical exclusion, and who files a service request before OGPe, the Authorised Professionals or the hierarchy I-III Autonomous Municipality, as applicable. Excluded are the construction, operation and maintenance activities of projects the DRNA develops, or of the agencies or private firms to which that Department has entrusted the construction, operation or maintenance of its projects. The regulation words that exclusion as saying "the provisions of this Section" shall not apply, even though the exclusion occupies a section of its own; we reproduce it as printed.

• That the work, development or construction not constitute a categorical exclusion: if it is not, the service request must be accompanied by the Habitat Categorisation Certification issued by the DRNA.Verified against the official source
• That the certification attest that the work, development or construction has a vast and detailed inventory of flora and fauna.Verified against the official source
• That the certification attest that the activity has been examined by the DRNA under Act 241-1999 and, specifically, that it does not contravene what is established in paragraphs (t) and (u) of Article 6 of that Act.Verified against the official source
• That the certification attest that any impact on a habitat of ecological value, of high ecological value, natural, natural critical essential of vulnerable or endangered species, irreplaceable or natural critical, has a mitigation plan duly evaluated and endorsed by the DRNA.Verified against the official source

• The Habitat Categorisation Certification, duly issued by the DRNA, filed with the service request before OGPe, the Authorised Professional or the hierarchy I-III Autonomous Municipality.
• The vast and detailed inventory of flora and fauna the work, development or construction must have, as certified by the DRNA.
• The mitigation plan duly evaluated and endorsed by the DRNA, where there is impact on a habitat of the categories the certification lists.

1. 1

   Step 1: First: find out whether your project is a categorical exclusion

   The obligation starts with a condition. The regulation imposes it on every natural or juridical person proposing to carry out any work, development or construction that does not constitute a categorical exclusion. If your project is one, this chapter does not require the certification of you. If it is not, the certification goes with the service request, not afterwards. This chapter does not define what a categorical exclusion is or list them, and we do not invent it: that concept lives in the environmental compliance process, which we did not read for this guide.

2. 2

   Step 2: Ask the DRNA for the certification

   The Habitat Categorisation Certification is issued by the DRNA. The regulation creates no form of its own and sets no application procedure inside this chapter, so the route is the Department. What it does fix is what the document must say, and that is what lets you know whether what you were handed is any good. Be clear too on what it rests on: the determination of the categorisation and potential mitigation for modifying natural habitat is made under the categories established in Act 241-1999 and in two of the Department’s own regulations, the one governing wildlife conservation and management, exotic species and hunting, and the one governing vulnerable and endangered species.

3. 3

   Step 3: Check that it certifies the three things

   The certification must contemplate and certify the following. First, that the work, development or construction has a vast and detailed inventory of flora and fauna. Second, that the activity to be carried out and evaluated by OGPe has been examined by the DRNA under Act 241-1999, and specifically that the activity does not contravene what is established in paragraphs (t) and (u) of Article 6 of that Act. And third, that any impact on a habitat of ecological value, of high ecological value, natural, natural critical essential of vulnerable or endangered species, irreplaceable, natural critical or of high ecological value, has a mitigation plan duly evaluated and endorsed by the DRNA. That last list appears with repeated categories in the regulation itself; we reproduce it as printed.

4. 4

   Step 4: File it with the application, not afterwards

   The regulation is explicit about timing: the applicant must accompany their service request before OGPe, the Authorised Professionals or the hierarchy I-III Autonomous Municipality, as applicable, with the Habitat Categorisation Certification duly issued by the DRNA. Accompany means it goes with the application. And there is a second control downstream: the DECA Director verifies that the Environmental Compliance Application carries the Habitat Categorisation Certification under this Chapter’s provisions.

5. 5

   Step 5: What the certification says will bind you

   This is the part worth understanding before signing anything. The mitigation for habitat modification stated in the certification forms part of the Environmental Compliance determination. That is, what the DRNA writes there does not stay in an annex: it enters the environmental determination governing the project. If the mitigation plan commits works, land or deadlines, those commitments travel with the permit.

6. 6

   Step 6: Who is left out

   The provisions shall not apply to the construction, operation and maintenance activities of projects the DRNA develops, or to the agencies or private firms to which that Department has entrusted the construction, operation or maintenance of its projects. That is the chapter’s entire exclusion. If your project does not fall there and is not a categorical exclusion, the certification applies to you.

The Habitat Categorisation Certification is issued by the DRNA. The certification is filed accompanying the service request before OGPe, before an Authorised Professional or before the hierarchy I-III Autonomous Municipality, as applicable. The Director of the Environmental Compliance Evaluation Division verifies that the Environmental Compliance Application carries it, and the mitigation the certification states forms part of the Environmental Compliance determination.

• Filing the service request and looking for the certification later: the regulation says it must accompany it.
• Accepting a certification that does not attest the vast and detailed inventory of flora and fauna.
• Accepting a certification that does not mention the DRNA’s examination under Act 241-1999 or paragraphs (t) and (u) of Article 6.
• Treating a certification as good without the mitigation plan evaluated and endorsed by the DRNA where there is habitat impact.
• Treating the mitigation as a suggestion: it forms part of the Environmental Compliance determination.
• Assuming the exclusion for DRNA projects covers any private contractor, and not only those to whom the Department entrusted its own projects.
• Confusing this procedural certification with the substantive habitat-modification rules of Act 241-1999.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (DRNA)

  DRNA

  docs.pr.gov

• Department of Natural and Environmental Resources

  drna

  www.drna.pr.gov

• Permit Management Office

  ogpe

  ogpe.pr.gov