Green Antilles

As the International Year of Forests draws to a close, Cuba continues to show strong commitment to reforestation and forest protection:

Technicians and specialists from Cuban institutions are putting into practice a program for increasing its forest areas up to 3.2 billion hectares, which represents 29.3 per cent of the national territory.

During a session in Santiago de Chile, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) acknowledged that, within the region of Latin America and the Caribbean, Cuba holds the largest proportion of forests areas with conservation purposes.

A FAO report on the situation of forest resources in 2010 placed the Caribbean island ahead of Chile, Ecuador and Trinidad and Tobago.

The national forest area experienced an increase from 13.4 per cent in January, 1959, to more than 25 per cent nowadays as a result of the policies designed by the government for that purpose.

This areas had been negatively affected due to the indiscriminate cutting down of trees during the colonial period and the rise of the sugar industry, by U.S. capital, among other common factors of that epoch.

However, today the Cuban government is making constant efforts to foster the planting of trees in more than 60,000 hectares of new plants, including the so-called intensive or high quality plantations.

The aim is not only to re-establish wooded areas damaged by fires, hurricanes, or by human action; but to increase it and recover endangered forest resources such as the Cuban royal palm and cedar trees, as well as other timber and fruit species.

Get more information in the the full article from Cadena Agramonte.

Previously on Green Antilles: Caribbean forests are growing, according to new UN report.

[Photo: Jaqme]

Roberto Perez Rivero talks about the problems and solutions of Cuba’s changing climate and its implications for water and agriculture. This talk was given at the Tenth International Permaculture Conference in Amman, Jordan, September 2011.

Cuban Authorities in Cuba are inreasingly concerned about the spread of lionfish on Cuban reefs:

An foreign species from the Indian and Pacific oceans (lionfish), is now considered a serious threat to coral reefs in the Caribbean.

Like many other areas of the region, the proliferation of this species has already reached alarming levels in large parts of Cuba especially in its northern coast.

This complicates the precarious environmental situation [of the reefs] [Dr.] Peter Alcolado told Prensa Latina.

[The lionfish] is a voracious animal that feeds on larvae and juveniles of many fish and invertebrates, including lobster, said Alcolado, who serves at the Institute of Oceanology.

(Source.)

See the below presentation (en español; obtained via the International Coral Reef Initiative) for more information on the lionfish situation in Cuba.

Engineers from Cuba and Vietnam are collaborating to expand Cuban production of energy from biogas (which is generated from animal waste):

Cuban and Vietnamese specialists are introducing in the Caribbean island a new technology to generate energy using biogas, as explained on Tuesday in this city during a seminar that will run until October 14.

Before the end of the year, two devices to produce biogas will begin operations, with a volume of 300 cubic meters and a capacity to contribute electricity to meet the demands of a small community, according to information provided to ACN by Dairom Blanco, member of the Biomas Cuba National Group.

Duan Thi Hai, engineer of the Biogas Technology Center in Hanoi, pointed out that since 2003 her country provides Cuba with specialists, materials and technologies to develop the use of this renewable energy source on the island, as part of a cooperation project that includes training and the assembly of plants.

In 2010, biogas contributed to prevent in the country the consumption of an equivalent to over 2,000 tons of oil, a contribution in which farmers and cooperative members played an important role.

In the opinion of Blanco, the use of this alternative should be increased in the near future, due to a greater environmental awareness of the population, the new regulations for the treatment of residues, and the high costs of traditional electricity generation.

(Source.)

An article from the New York Times about the rich biodiversity of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station:

When most people think of the American base at Guantanamo Bay, they think of the nine controversial detention camps that house prisoners of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But for the service members, contractors and families who live here, the base has another, perhaps even more prominent feature: its wildlife.

On a sunny day, it’s difficult to drive a mile on base without passing a giant, prehistoric-looking rock iguana sunning itself on a road or beach. And a conversation between two base residents at the Tiki Bar is as likely to be about the hutia — a porcupine-like mammal that lives in trees and cactuses — that got into someone’s house as it is to be about 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

“There’s no other place like this,” said Chief Petty Officer Andrew Meyer, who works for the detention centers’ computer support team. “We’ve had a Cuban boa up in the rafters and a tarantella in the office.”

The animals are not just catching the attention of the base residents. Among environmental researchers, Guantanamo Bay Naval Station is building a reputation as an ideal place to study rare and threatened species indigenous to Cuba and the Caribbean region.

The dry habitats that dominate the base’s arid landscapes are imperiled throughout much of the Caribbean but are protected on the base by Pentagon policy and a team of environmental managers employed by the Navy. So, too, are the clear waters off the base’s coasts, which are home to four species of threatened or endangered sea turtles and some of the most pristine coral in the region.

Read more in the full Times article.

Previously on Green Antilles: Cuba: the accidental Eden.

[Photo: USMARINE0311]