FAO Forestry country profiles - forest management

Issues and concerns

The islands of the CNMI retain only a fraction of their historical natural forest habitat and some of this is threatened by fragmentation and degradation associated with agricultural and tourism development. Loss of natural forest has been exacerbated by the Agricultural Homestead Act of 1990, which allocates small (1 hectare) parcels of public land. An increasing frequency of typhoons is also of concern in the CNMI and have caused significant canopy degradation in exposed forests.