The 2019 Final Plan reflects considerable improvement with respect to the agency’s process for formulating and implementing management policies across El Yunque. One example is the Forest Service’s express commitment to “Shared Stewardship” management, which is the “strategic and site-specific engagement of Forest Service and active partners working together in general forest operations, conservation and restoration activities with a practical sense of shared responsibilities.” In highlighting the importance of connecting surrounding communities to the forest, the agency hopes to elevate “community capacity for participation in various management activities in areas such as interpretation, education, recreation, economic development, conservation, restoration, research, and monitoring.” On August 24, 2021, the Forest Service idiomatically “put its money where its mouth is” by announcing that it had entered into a moratorium of understanding (MOU) with a coalition of five local nonprofit organizations “to collaborate in various projects that facilitate community empowerment, shared stewardship, conservation, and co-management of natural resources, as well as promotion of tourism and economic activity in the northeast region.” Ideally, by integrating community voices, the Forest Service’s stewardship of El Yunque can be mutually beneficial to both the agency and locals.
No policy better reflects the agency’s increased awareness about the importance of understanding and utilizing local stakeholders than the 2019 plan’s “all-lands” management approach, which aims to bring landowners and stakeholders together to identify common goals for the forest. The region surrounding El Yunque is delineated by nine municipalities: Canóvanas, Ceiba, Fajardo, Humacao, Juncos, Las Piedras, Luquillo, Naguabo, and Río Grande. In recognizing the array of community characteristics, environmental conditions, and land ownerships across these municipalities, the 2019 plan positions the agency to make effective planning decisions that are more beneficial for locals. Intuitively, the agency is also better positioned to satisfy its multiuse mandate, because it can make sub-regional ecological management decisions that simultaneously promote human health and community-based economic interests. For example, the plan breaks El Yunque down into three major geographic areas. For each area, the agency describes its desired management principles, such as providing access to “highly developed recreation settings and connect[ing] to a regional trail system,” and lists the local collaborative group(s) the agency intends to partner with and their connection to El Yunque.
Since implementation of the 2019 plan, the agency’s trend of giving special attention to local interests has continued. In January 2023, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the Forest Service will invest $1 million to improve access across El Yunque. This investment aligns with the Biden administration’s broader commitment to encouraging economic growth in rural communities by expanding the Rural Partner Network, which helps to ensure that rural communities benefit from federal funding resources. In making this investment, the agency aims to ensure that “rural communities have equitable access to the infrastructure and economic opportunities.”
The investment is also an implicit acknowledgment that the forest is a popular tourist location that demands agency attention: El Yunque represents roughly 20 percent of the Puerto Rican tourism economy. Notably, the announcement came just one month after the Department of Agriculture announced a $250,000 investment in El Yunque to develop a “master transit plan to improve the visitor experience.” According to the Department of Agriculture, “[s]ome 1.2 million people visit the forest every year, with up to 3,000 cars trying every day to access an area that has only 300 parking spaces.” Part of the transit plan might include a park-and-ride system that will help decongest roadways and surrounding forest areas.
Notwithstanding the recent surge in funding for the forest, there was not always a consensus about whether “local” interests and “tourist” interests were compatible. For instance, in an effort to combat high unemployment rates across the island in 2006, the Puerto Rican government stimulated the local economy by creating new construction jobs for commercial development projects and hotels, some of which were only two miles away from El Yunque. On one hand, easing unemployment and expanding the island’s hospitality sector ensures the long-term viability of the Puerto Rican economy. But for conservationists, any encroachment on El Yunque’s public lands and its surrounding “buffer zone” is equally dangerous, and could be a “travesty for all Puerto Ricans and the millions of visitors who come [to El Yunque] every year.” Despite such conflicts, the increasing frequency of strategic investment in El Yunque seems to reflect a trend towards greater collaboration about the trajectory of the forest.
The past century reflects just how arduous a task it can be to agree on common management goals, let alone actually carrying them out in light of short-term demands and accommodations. Nevertheless, the fact that the agency and public continue to enhance El Yunque in a more collaborative, multifaceted way is a positive sign that the forest is getting the attention it deserves. At a minimum, the country is making a humble effort to rectify the historical wrongs inflicted upon the Taíno and similarly situated indigenous groups, who hopefully can look down upon their ancestors and feel proud of their ever-increasing involvement in cherishing El Yunque.