Project: Coastal Strengthening in the County Lagoon Estuarine Nature Reserve

In observance of the International Day for Biological Diversity, May 22, 2025, the San Juan Bay Estuary and L'Oréal Caribe announced the Coastal Strengthening Project in the Condado Lagoon Estuarine Nature Reserve , a partnership aimed at ensuring a long-term increase in biodiversity within the Reserve's coastal ecosystems, including mangroves, seagrass meadows, and coral reefs. This project will begin in June 2025 and will run for 10 years.

The project has two components:

• Environmental management focused on coastal strengthening, which includes the restoration and improvement of coastal ecosystems.
• Development of capabilities in the communities to ensure the sustainability of the interventions.

The activities include planting mangroves and coastal vegetation along the southern shore of Condado Lagoon, monitoring their growth, and tracking the health of seagrass meadows and coral communities. The total habitat area impacted by the restoration efforts will be 17,263 square meters.

Project Location: County Lagoon

In the mid-twentieth century, the County Lagoon was known as the San Juan septic tank.

Over the past few decades, the Estuary and its partners have succeeded in eliminating illegal discharges and restoring water quality.

The Laguna del Condado Estuarine Nature Reserve

Thanks to these efforts, the Lagoon was designated as a natural estuarine reserve through Law 112 of 2013. Since then, the Estuary co-manages the reserve together with the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources and the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan.

Environmental Management

Environmental management is at the heart of the project, as it addresses the need for immediate restoration to conserve these valuable ecosystems.

The process is data-driven, includes monitoring, identification of stressors, prioritization of interventions, and execution of restoration work.

The data will be available to support the development of comprehensive proposals for investment in coastal infrastructure and the strengthening of our coasts.

Capacity Development

Capacity building is the component that will guarantee the long-term sustainability of environmental management efforts.

The Estuary trains citizens to support restoration and monitoring efforts, and to increase the region's capacity to implement and maintain sound environmental management.

Do you want to be part of this project?

Visit https://estuario.org/ccc/ and join the Estuary Citizen Scientist Certification for Coastal Strengthening.