Fears rife of greedy land grab

The Puerto Rican government recently issued a hard-line ultimatum to homeowners who live on the picturesque coastlines of the Caribbean island: If you want federal money to help rebuild, you have to move inland.

But in Puerto Rico, where coastal property is gold to eager developers, a fear lurks about such apparently helpful hazard mitigation policies. Are they good for the communities and the island as a whole — or just another backdoor land grab for the rich?

Discouraging home building in low-lying or flood prone areas has some merit — but only when implemented in an informed manner with care and concern.

It just so happens that many of these low-lying areas are sites of important food resources such as land crabs, clams, oysters, estuarine fish, coconuts, and more — and are also associated with cultural practices and traditions unique to these ecosystems.

One such mangrove community is Las Mareas in Salinas, Puerto Rico, where we have documented approximately two-thirds of households routinely using local mangrove and estuarine resources for at least part of their livelihoods.

Historically, many poor communities around Puerto Rico settled in the mangroves and low-lying estuarine areas when these were wrongly considered to be undesirable and disease-laden.

But as the tide of public perception has turned and coastal areas have become valuable places of leisure, the pressure from coastal developers and wealthier families has increased a thousand-fold.

A de facto prohibition on reviving the local homes destroyed by María could very well be the final hit that knocks these communities off the coastal areas that sustain them, as well as their cultures and traditions.