The Global Environment Facility (GEF) approved a budget of 4.1 billion dollars to continue a huge project to preserve the biodiversity of Cuba's north-central Sabana-Camagüey ecosystem, which stretches across five of the island nation's provinces. This contribution allows finalization of the third phase of the plan begun in 1993 with the support of the Cuban government and, among other donors, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Gricel Acosta, the agency's expert in environment and energy in Havana, told Tierramérica.

The Sabana-Camagüey ecosystem includes the archipelago of the same name and some 2,500 keys, or islets. It is home to important marine and land biodiversity, threatened by the impacts of conventional tourism, and to lesser extent, excessive fishing and pollution.