217b

The Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources is hereby empowered to expropriate any private land, properties, structures or buildings adjacent or close to the designated forest area to insure the protection, preservation and conservation of such area.All the real and personal property and any right to or interest in the same, which the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources considers necessary to acquire in order to implement the objectives of this chapter are hereby declared of public use and can be expropriated by the Department, at its request or for the use and benefit of the same by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, without the previous declaration of public use required by the Act of March 12, 1903, as amended. The expropriation proceedings to be initiated based on this chapter shall be processed pursuant to the provisions of the Act of March 12, 1903, as amended. History —Nov. 21, 2003, No. 295, § 3.