ENVIRONMENT-CUBA: Fire Ravages Reserve of Endangered Parrots

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, May 13 1998 (IPS) - One thousand hectares of the world’s largest reserve of the small green parrot known in Latin America as the “cotorra”, an endangered species, were destroyed by fire over the past few days in Cuba.

The fire, which burned out of control until early this week, ravaged at least 20 percent of the ‘Los Indios’ region of the Isle of Youth, south of the island of Cuba, local authorities reported.

The local flora and fauna office said that although the central part of the reserve was not affected, a broad area used by the parrots and other species for feeding and nesting was destroyed.

The small green parrot which also has feathers of other colours and is capable of copying human speech is one of the most valuable of Cuba’s endangered native species. Customs authorities are constantly on the lookout to curb smuggling of the small birds, which are sold to tourists for 25 to 50 dollars.

Environmentalists say the fire could cause long-term damages because it occurred during the parrot’s mating season.

‘Granma’, the publication of Cuba’s governing Communist Party, reported that the cause of the fire was unknown, but that it spread fast due to drought in the area. The area damaged included stretches of savannah with white sands, palm trees, pines, swamps and grasslands used as pasture.

The National Information Agency reported a higher incidence of forest fires in the last few years on the Isle of Youth, a special Cuban municipality. “32 forest fires – most of them caused by carelessness – have brought losses of more than 72,000 pesos” (on par with the dollar at the official exchange rate), the official news agency reported.

Around 600 people – residents from nearby villages, forest rangers and members of the armed forces – fought the fire for three days before getting it under control Monday.

An earlier fire damaged some 600 hectares of pine forests in late April in the province of Pinar del Rio, 176 kms from Havana. The area of Cajalbana is considered the world’s largest forest of “Caribbean” pines. But according to ‘Radio Reloj’, the fire was not an environmental disaster, and the remaining wood can be used in building sheds for drying tobacco.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture Fidel Ramos Perera said last month that Cuba’s forests were growing at an annual rate of around 7.5 million cubic metres of wood.

Cuba currently has 1.9 million hectares of trees, and thanks to government reforestation programmes, should have 2.4 million by the year 2015, the equivalent of 27 percent of the country’s territory.

In 1492, when Christopher Columbus discovered the islands that later became Cuba, 90 percent of the archipelago was covered in forests. But according to the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, that proportion had dropped to 53 percent by 1900, and by the early 1960s, only 13.5 percent of the country was forested.

The government’s reforestation efforts have been counteracted by illegal logging activities and fires caused by human carelessness and drought. In 1996 the Cuban economy lost 17.2 million pesos as a consequence of some 13,000 fires, most of which were the result of negligence.