TITLE 2: NATURAL RESOURCES
DIVISION 4: LAND RESOURCES
§ 4812. Findings. The legislature finds and declares that: (a) The Northern Mariana Islands contains a wealth of historic and cultural properties whose preservation, study and interpretation are vital to the maintenance and development of self-understanding and self-pride on the part of our people and to the interest of international science in understanding the history and cultures of the people and environment of the Pacific Islands; (b) These cultural and historic properties are subject to damage and destruction by patterns of modern land use and development, and once they are destroyed they will be gone forever; (c) The United States government, through the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (16 U.S.C. § 470 et seq.) and related authorities, has established a federal-state partnership for the protection of historic and culturally related properties that provides assistance in the establishment of historic preservation programs by the Commonwealth government; and (d) The establishment of a Historic Preservation Office is necessary to implement the requirement of N.M.I. Const. art. XIV, § 3. Source: PL 3-39, § 2.