What can be done on land in the karst zone

The karst zone is the belt of mogotes, dolines, sinkholes and caves crossing northern Puerto Rico, with a discontinuous strip in the south and isolated outcrops elsewhere. Beneath it is the aquifer supplying much of the island, and that is why the law treats this land differently from any other. If you own or are buying a farm there, what is useful about this Act is that it gives you two short lists. One is ten things you may not do without the Secretary of Natural Resources’ permit, from extracting limestone to putting up an antenna or setting up an ecotourism project. The other is a closing rule that surprises many people: everything not on that list is permitted without prior authorisation, provided you comply with the other permits that apply to you. And there is an incentive at the end almost nobody uses: if you dedicate five cuerdas or more to an auxiliary forest and encumber them for fifty years with a conservation easement, they are exempt from property tax.

The prohibitions reach any natural or juridical person who carries out any of the ten acts in Article 4 within the karst zone, without distinguishing owner, tenant or contractor. Article 10 goes further and expressly reaches Commonwealth agencies, public and private corporations, municipal corporations and companies whose determinations and actions may affect any mogote, doline, sinkhole, cave, underground river, spring, aquifer or wetland in the karst zones. For the Article 11 tax exemption three things are needed at once: that the property be five cuerdas or more and in the karst zone; that it be dedicated exclusively to auxiliary forests created under the Forest Act; and that it be encumbered for a period of no less than fifty years with a conservation easement recorded in the Property Registry guaranteeing the area’s protection and complying with a management plan approved by the Natural Heritage Programme.

• For any of the ten acts in Article 4, the corresponding permits of the Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources (Article 4).Verified against the official source
• For the tax exemption: property of five cuerdas or more in the karst zone, dedicated exclusively to auxiliary forests under the Forest Act (Article 11).Verified against the official source
• For the tax exemption: a conservation easement recorded in the Property Registry for a period of no less than fifty years, with a management plan approved by the Natural Heritage Programme (Article 11).Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Where the karst zone is

   Article 3(a) describes it geographically: tracts of land located in the north as a continuous strip, in the south as a discontinuous strip, the islands of Mona and Monito, part of Caja de Muertos and isolated outcrops in other parts of the island. Geologically, it is characterised by a composition of sedimentary calcareous rocks, principally limestone, highly susceptible to dissolution through the flow of surface and underground waters. The Act publishes no map or list of farms: it describes the zone, it does not delimit it parcel by parcel, and that delimitation was left to the study and regulation in Article 5.

2. 2

   Step 2: The ten things that need a permit

   Article 4 lists them. Extraction, excavation and removal of limestone rock for commercial purposes or land levelling without the Secretary’s authorisation under Act 132-1968 on Sand, Gravel and Stone — and note the sentence closing that paragraph: “No simple permits or exemptions shall be granted for these purposes in the zone.” Creating dumps for domestic, hazardous or special non-hazardous waste. Agricultural activity tending to totally exterminate the vegetation or implying its substantial reduction, and the use of pesticides, herbicides or any non-degradable biocide that could filter to the aquifers. Building roads, highways or other access ways. Building infrastructure for enjoying scenic areas. Fragmenting ecosystems of natural value. Selective or total deforestation, removal of native and endemic vegetation for commercial landscaping, and removal of live woody material for charcoal. Removing, hunting, capturing or exterminating wildlife whose habitat is the karst zone. Building or installing towers or antennas for electric transmission or communication lines. And creating ecotourism projects.

3. 3

   Step 3: What “fragmenting” means, because the Act defines it

   It is the prohibition easiest to breach without realising, and that is why the Act explains it. Paragraph (f) says: “By fragmentation is to be understood dividing, separating or isolating any intact ecosystem or one that at the time of this Act’s approval is of high natural value, even if it has been fragmented in the past. The separation, isolation and division may occur through roads or paths crossing them, or by taking portions away from the ecosystems to dedicate them to uses other than maintaining natural systems.” That is: opening a road that splits an ecosystem, or segregating a piece for another use, counts as fragmentation.

4. 4

   Step 4: The rule that answers almost everything else

   Article 8 is headed “Permitted Activities” and is a single sentence: “All activities not prohibited by this Act shall be permitted without the Secretary’s prior authorisation and provided all permits, endorsements and franchises required by applicable state and federal laws are complied with.” Read it in full: it is not a free pass. What it says is that this particular Act adds no further permit for what is not on its list, but every other permit that applies to you — construction, use, environmental, federal — remains yours to obtain.

5. 5

   Step 5: The two sanction routes, and judicial review

   They run in parallel and should not be confused. Criminally, Article 4 makes each of the ten acts, carried out without the corresponding permits, a misdemeanour with imprisonment of no more than six months, or a fine of no more than five hundred dollars, or both, at the court’s discretion; and the Act clarifies this is “in addition to the administrative fine.” Administratively, Article 6 empowers the Secretary to issue orders to do or not do, cease and desist and show cause, to hold investigative and adjudicative hearings, and to impose administrative fines up to a maximum of twenty-five thousand dollars. And it closes with the fact most needed if you are fined: “Any administrative decision of the Secretary may be reviewed by the Circuit Court of Appeals.”

6. 6

   Step 6: If your project touches a mogote, a cave or an aquifer

   Article 10 imposes a duty reaching even the agencies. Every natural or juridical person, including Commonwealth agencies, public and private corporations, municipal corporations and companies, whose determinations and actions may affect any mogote, doline, sinkhole, cave, underground river, spring, aquifer or wetland in the karst zones, must comply with the procedures established under the environmental public policy act and its regulations, and with Act 111-1985 on the protection of caves, caverns and sinkholes. In practice this means the procedure for a cave in the karst zone runs under both acts at once.

7. 7

   Step 7: The Article 11 incentive, step by step

   It is the only economic counterpart the Act offers the owner and it requires three simultaneous conditions. The farm must be five cuerdas or more and in the karst zone. It must be dedicated exclusively to auxiliary forests created under the Forest Act of Puerto Rico. And it must be encumbered for a period of no less than fifty years with a conservation easement recorded in the Property Registry, guaranteeing the area’s protection and complying with a management plan approved by the Natural Heritage Programme of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. With the three met, exemption from property tax payment is granted. The Department certifies the easement’s inscription to CRIM and notifies every five years whether the owner is complying with the management plan.

8. 8

   Step 8: If you already had an activity before the Act

   Article 9 protects acquired rights, but with conditions. The Act shall not impair any right acquired in the karst zone while the activities or uses benefiting the natural or juridical persons with such rights last. Nonetheless, it shall be the Secretary’s responsibility to harmonise those activities with the Act’s purposes. And any future improvement or expansion to the physical installations or activities yielding benefits in this zone must be in harmony with this Act. That is: what you already did continues, but growing requires adjusting.

Permits and orders come from the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, whose Secretary Article 5 charges with implementing the Act and empowers to adopt the regulations. Review of any administrative decision of the Secretary goes to the Circuit Court of Appeals. For the Article 11 incentive the Natural Heritage Programme also intervenes, approving the management plan, as does CRIM, to whom the Department certifies the easement’s inscription. The Act publishes no form, address or portal.

• Believing the karst zone is only the north: the Act includes a discontinuous strip in the south, Mona, Monito, part of Caja de Muertos and isolated outcrops.
• Thinking there is a simple permit to extract limestone: the Act expressly says no simple permits or exemptions shall be granted for those purposes in the zone.
• Opening a road without a permit: building roads, highways or other access ways is among the ten prohibited acts.
• Segregating a piece of the farm without thinking: taking portions away from an ecosystem for another use counts as fragmentation.
• Assuming the administrative fine replaces the criminal one: the Act says the misdemeanour is “in addition to the administrative fine.”
• Not appealing a fine: any administrative decision of the Secretary is reviewable before the Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Reading Article 8 as a free pass: what is not prohibited is permitted without the Secretary’s authorisation, but all other state and federal permits still apply.
• Believing the Article 11 incentive just needs planting trees: it needs five cuerdas, an auxiliary forest under the Forest Act and a recorded fifty-year conservation easement with an approved management plan.
• Setting up ecotourism without authorisation: creating ecotourism projects in karst areas is one of the ten prohibited acts.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (DRNA)

  DRNA

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov