Compensatory Wetland Mitigation in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands: An Incipient Discipline

Abstract

The 750-km long Mariana Island archipelago consists of the sixteen islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and the U.S. Territory of Guam, a separate political entity from the CNMI (Figure 1). As a self-governing Commonwealth of the U.S., the CNMI is subject to all U.S. environmental laws (U.S. Department of Interior 1996), including the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (the Clean Water Act) of 1972, as amended, which regulates activities that impair wetlands and can require mitigation-the avoidance, minimization, and compensation for activities that degrade wetlands. Compensatory wetland mitigation, which can take the form of wetland restoration, enhancement, creation, and, in some cases, preservation, is required to compensate for authorized activities that cause unavoidable and minimized adverse wetland impacts (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of the Army 1990, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 1994a). This chapter describes compensatory wetland mitigation activities in the CNMI.