The Las Casas de la Selva (the Houses of the Forest) property is managed by Tropic Ventures and Tropic Ventures Educational & Research Foundation (a Puerto Rico non-profit corporation). This area provides a protected habitat for Puerto Rican native flora and fauna as well as a long-term study site for research and limited public and student familiarization in the areas of ecology, botany, forestry, horticulture, soil, ethnobotany and other related environmental disciplines.
Since 1984, on this 1,000 acres of land, 40,000 valuable hardwood trees have been line-planted within 230 acres, while maintaining the ecosystem’s biomass and biodiversity. In July 2003, 1,000 board feet of Mahoe, Hibiscus elatus, was harvested from the Tropic Ventures plantation as its first experimental program to produce a sustainable and economically viable timber crop. As part of Tropic Venture’s ongoing sustainable forestry program, more Puerto Rican hardwood trees are being planted at the project.