Guanica

Protected since 1919 and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1981, the Guánica Forest preserves one of the finest surviving examples of subtropical dry forest in the Caribbean, an ecosystem far less studied and protected worldwide than tropical rainforest but every bit as threatened. It holds lignum vitae trees more than 700 years old, among the longest-lived organisms documented in Puerto Rico, and an exceptional diversity of birds for its relatively small size, with over 700 plant species and 100 bird species recorded in barely 40 km².