FAO Forestry country profiles - forest management

History

Forest management and silviculture

The CNMI was originally inhabited by Chamorros people - as much as 5 000 years ago. The Chamorros lived in communal village systems, and forest management was part of an overall land use system based on agroforestry and shifting cultivation. European influences in CNMI arrived in the late seventeenth century, and many native people were relocated to Guam. During the next three centuries, significant areas of CNMI forest and woodlands were converted to sugar and coconut plantations. Timber harvesting and destruction during World War II also contributed to the clearing of significant areas of forests. There are, consequently, no large forest or vegetation zones. The variety of botanical species in the CNMI is also limited. This is a result, in part, due to the islands' isolation and geological formation. Primary vegetation comprises savannah and shrublands. Coconut palms, managed as the dominant species within agroforestry systems, are the most significant source of timber in the CNMI.