FAO Forestry country profiles - forest management
Managers
The government organization with primary responsibility for forestry in the CNMI is the Department of Lands and Natural Resources. It monitors compliance with laws affecting natural resources and is responsible for the management of public lands transferred from the former Marianas Public Land Corporation. It is also the parent department of the Division of Plant Industry, which has core responsibility for forestry, the Division of Environmental Quality, the CNMI¿s primary environmental regulatory agency, and the Division of Fish and Wildlife, which administers wildlife conservation areas and regulations. A Coastal Resources Management Office has responsibility for coordinating planning and implementation of coastal resources management policies, including those that affect coastal forest areas.
As in other Pacific economies, most land in CNMI is communally owned. The government also holds significant land areas, although it operated a homestead programme for a number of years, which enabled the transfer of lands into private ownership. At least 50 percent of Saipan, 80 percent of Rota, 70 percent of Tinian and nearly 100 percent of the rest of the islands are public lands. The Constitution provides that land can be privately owned only by people of Northern Marianas descent. Other people may lease land for up to 55 years.