By Dalia Acosta
HAVANA, May 21 1999 (IPS)

A long string of forest fires, some of which may have been intentionally set, has jeopardised the success of Cuba’s reforestation programme, which has increased the land surface covered by forests by four percent in 30 years.

According to official sources, 258 forest fires have broken out so far this year, five more than last year’s total, affecting 10,000 hectares of forests, with endangered tree species at particular risk.

The latest fire, which raged out of control for several days last week, took place in the western province of Pinar del Rio, which boasts Cuba’s largest forest reserve. The flames damaged around 4,000 hectares of woods.

Pinar del Rio’s reserve stretches out over more than 418,000 hectares of sandy soil, 38.6 percent of the province’s total surface area. The region has a tropical climate and is home to 374 species of flowers, 101 of which are native.

The Cuban press pointed out that February through April was the peak season for forest fires, which sretched out through May this year.

The daily ‘Granma’, the organ of the ruling Communist Party, said intense drought and high temperatures this year had made forests and undergrowth particularly prone to fire, ready to burst into flame at the slightest spark, “whether originating in an electrical discharge or carelessness, without discarding bad intentions.”

Andres Nazario, president of the U.S.-based anti-Castro organisation Alpha 66, claimed responsibility for the latest forest fires as “acts of sabotage.”

“We want to fill (the island) with smoke as part of the scorched earth strategy that we have always advocated,” said Nazario, who was quoted by the Miami daily, the New Herald.

Spokesman for Cuba’s Foreign Ministry Rogelio Sierra told IPS that the ministry had “the information offered by the Cuban media, which explained that the fires were caused by electrical discharges.”

The National Information Agency reported that a large portion of the 258 forest fires that had occurred this year were caused by “the irresponsible action” of humans. The press agency pinned the blame mainly on the negligence of poachers and fishermen, as well as peasants who burned their fields clean after harvesttime.

According to the National Commission for Protection of the Environment, 54 percent of the island was covered by forests at the start of the century, compared to a mere 14 percent at the time of the 1959 revolution.

But thanks to the government’s reforestation efforts, that proportion was increased by four percent from 1960 to 1990, during which time more than 1.4 billion trees were planted.

A full 67.6 percent of Cuba’s forests are protected, while 32.4 percent are commercially exploited. The government forestry programme manages all of the Caribbean island’s woodlands.

The economic crisis that has had the island in its grip since the start of the decade, with the disappearance of the eastern European socialist bloc and the loss of Cuba’s privileged trade relations with those nations, triggered a rise in the household use of wood for cooking and heating purposes.

Parliamentary reports point to a low level of survival of the trees planted in the mid-1990s, which meant that reforestation efforts fell 58 percent short of the target set by the government programme.

United Nations studies report that forests, which once covered one-third of the planet’s total land surface, cover just one-fifth today. And they warn that by the year 2025, that proportion will have shrunk to a mere 12.5 percent.

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