ENVIRONMENT-CUBA: Desertification Eating up the Island

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Rolando Napoles

HAVANA, Jun 4 1996 (IPS) - The dry eastern section of the island of Cuba is in danger of desiccation, and could loose its agricultural acreage to the deserts if land management practices are not urgently revised.

The National Environment and Development Programme reported that the Cuban ecosystems particularly susceptible to desertification are mainly in the south eastern coastal area, some 900 km from Havana.

The degradation of this land is mainly due to low levels of rainfall -between 300 and 1,000 mm per year – extensive grazing, overcultivation, inadequate drainage and deforestation.

A report in the official Young Communists Union weekly ‘Juventud Rebelde’ said there are 24 arid and subhumid areas subject to degradation and threatened by desertification in Cuba, though the public are not aware of the seriousness of the issue.

The indiscrimiate felling of trees has increased dramatically over the last five years due to the energy crisis, affecting the future of the Cuban forests and increasing risks of desertification.

A report by the Development Plan for the National Sources of Energy indicated that “the population uses wood indiscriminately because they are faced with a lack of domestic fuel, deteriorating the forests, which were already inadequate.”

At present only 25 percent of the forests logged for fuel are being replaced, and planned felling is outstripping replanting because of the need for wood as cooking fuel and building material.

Data from the National Department of Soils and Fertilisers showed that 11 of the 14 national departments have dry and subhumid areas, adding up to a total of nearly a million hectares.

The Ministry of Agriculture said that 64 percent of the 6,770,345 hectares of agricultural land is affected by low levels of organic material, and 41 percent by low levels of fertility, 37 percent by poor drainage, 29 percent by serious erosion and 14 percent by salinity.

Maria Urquiza, coordinator in the National Group of the Battle against Desertification announced that the issue of a national programme to deal with the increasing threat is already being worked on.

However, Andres Puentes, from the National Department of Soils and Fertilisers warned that the scientific authorities’ demands that the soil be conserved does not go far enough, as from 1991 to 1995 only 1.63 percent of the areas in danger of suffering desertification were given help.

According to Puentes, there is a project underway which could resolve 80 percent of the problems with Cuban soil quite cheaply, improving the quality of reforestation and stressing the central role which must be taken by the local populations.

Sources in the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment explained that Guantanamo, 971 km southwest of Havana was already using a technique to deal with the saline soil.

“This is a very fragile system where the rules cannot be violated,” said Caridad Piedra, director of the Soil Station of the Ministry of Agriculture.

“We want to demonstrate how counterproductive it is to make fish tanks in any area without drainage and waterproofing, as this leads to the formation of bogs and leakage to the surface which encourage salinity,” he added.

The Ministry of Agriculture Soil Station said nearly 47 percent of the soil in this province is affected by salinity and that which is so far unaffected is already at risk.

“All the southern strip of this province is covered by the Cuban semidesert, where the hills are especially craggy and the cactuses dominate the landscape,” read ‘Juventud Rebelde.’

The local specialists said the risks to the crisis ridden Cuban government could be immense if desertification is not tackled in time, “and if this is not dealt with quickly the solutions could be far more costly,” warned Urquiza.