Laguna Cartagena National Wildlife Refuge

Laguna Cartagena National Wildlife Refuge is a 1,043-acre protected area in Lajas, Puerto Rico, managed within the Caribbean Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Centered on the diminished Laguna Cartagena, it protects one of Puerto Rico’s most important freshwater habitats for migrating waterfowl and other aquatic birds, along with surrounding pastureland, former sugar cane fields, and foothill forest in the Sierra Bermeja. Although agriculture, cattle grazing, and sugar production heavily altered the landscape and cattail now covers much of the lagoon, the refuge remains an important conservation area in southwestern Puerto Rico, supporting neotropical migrants, resident waterbirds, and species such as the endangered yellow-shouldered blackbird and peregrine falcon.

Puerto Rico · Puerto Rico