Featured Publication: Climate change effects in El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean region
Summarizing more than 20 years of climate change research is no small task. When Puerto Rico’s El Yunque National Forest (EYNF) became one of the first to revise its land and management plan under the latest National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule (2012), Eastern Threat Center researchers and partners from EYNF and the International Institute of Tropical Forestry employed the Template for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Management Options (TACCIMO) to help. A new report presents their efforts and the best available science from more than 240 peer-reviewed literature sources covering 16 natural resource areas to satisfy the assessment process required by the new Planning Rule and to support decision making. Their findings include changes to climate change drivers and forest stressors as well as effects on ecological, physical, social, and economic resources relevant to the EYNF and other forests across Puerto Rico and the Caribbean region. Read the report, and learn more on the USDA blog…
