Environment, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

ENVIRONMENT-CUBA: Life and Death in Guanahacabibes

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Sep 18 2004 (IPS) - From the air, the forests look completely decimated. There are no flocks of parrots flying through. But then an iguana peeks out, a hummingbird flits into view, and it is clear that Cuba’s Guanahacabibes Peninsula isn’t dead after all.

“Life goes on there,” reported José Antonio Díaz, the Cuban deputy minister of Science, Technology and the Environment. Last Monday morning, Hurricane Ivan swept through this area of western Cuba with all its destructive power.

Initial observations reveal that there are still many species of fauna living in the peninsula, despite the fact that a large number of trees were blown down or doubled over. The vast expanses of forest found here appear to have survived the disaster, Díaz said.

Further to the east, throughout the rest of the province of Pinar del Rio, official sources have reported the destruction of 225 tobacco drying houses, the loss of almost 14,000 tons of citrus fruits, damage to 2,200 bee hives, and the death of 2,400 chickens.

The hurricane caused severe economic damage to the island, but not a single life was lost. A total of 1.8 million Cubans were evacuated from their homes before the storm, including 220,000 in Pinar del Rio alone.

Apparently, there was no one left behind in Guanacahabibes to see what happened firsthand.

“It was one of those most incredible places in Cuba,” recalled Sonia Pérez, a Havana resident who visited the peninsula several years ago. “If you swam out a bit from shore, you were surrounded by fish. You could watch deer drinking from the lakes, or reach into the water and grab crayfish with your hands.”

What Pérez remembers most vividly are the dense foliage of the forest, the flocks of parrots flying over the strip separating the woodlands from the beach at Cabo de San Antonio, and the incomparable sunsets, “at the very centre of the horizon.”

Guanahacabibes Peninsula, located 200 kilometres west of Havana, was declared a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) Biosphere Reserve in 1987.

“There is very little vegetation left, and the trees still standing look like they were set on fire,” commented Omar Ledesma, head of the meteorological station in Cabo de San Antonio. This is the westernmost point in Cuba, and was therefore the closest to the eye of Hurricane Ivan.

Ledesma is one of a team of 14 men who managed to reach Cabo San Antonio on Tuesday night, after clearing a path through 50 kilometres of wreckage with axes and machetes. It took them 12 hours.

“Along the way we saw dead fish and iguanas, but we saw others that were still alive,” said Ledesma. He estimated that 95 percent of the forests were affected, as well as most of the beaches.

The peninsula, which stretches like a finger from the western tip of the island of Cuba, encompasses over 100,000 hectares of wooded forests; many of the tree species found here have considerable commercial value. Within the peninsula are three separate state-managed protected areas: El Veral and Cabo Corrientes Nature Reserves, and Guanahacabibes National Park.

The park covers an area of roughly 50,000 hectares, and is home to 172 species of birds, including 11 endemic and 54 migratory species, as well as large numbers of jutias (a large tree-dwelling rodent), iguanas and deer. There are also four varieties of sea turtle, which are endangered species.

There are 19 beaches on the peninsula, roughly 100 ponds or lakes, coral reefs composed primarily of black coral, in a near-perfect state of conservation – at least before Hurricane Ivan – and the largest and purest silica sand deposits in Cuba.

More than 150 archaeological sites show that Guanahacabibes was the last refuge for the indigenous peoples of western Cuba, during the early years of Spanish colonisation. Cuba’s native population was almost wholly exterminated after the arrival of Europeans on the island.

Today, on the highway running through La Bajada – a small community at the entrance to the peninsula that was hit by severe flooding – chunks of asphalt are jumbled with dead fish, coral, sponges, plants and rocks thrust ashore by the storm.

But in the midst of all the destruction, the Roncali Lighthouse, a 33-meter-high tower built in 1850 and one of the peninsula’s most important cultural heritage structures, managed to withstand sustained winds of 260 kilometres an hour and gusts of 350.

“The animals that are most affected are usually the birds, because they depend on the trees and bushes to build their nests,” noted Díaz. In order to get a fuller picture of the damage incurred, however, it will be necessary to explore the forests and caves in depth, he added.

For the moment, work has barely begun on appraising the impact of Hurricane Ivan, one of the five worst storms to pass through the Caribbean since meteorological records began to be kept.

In the meantime, Wilfredo Borrego, the head of a group of forestry specialists working in the area since Tuesday, confirmed that there has been significant damage to a number of the more than 150 tree species found there.

Recovery efforts will include clearing the forests and roads, removing the toppled trees for commercial use as building wood or fuel, and eventually initiating a reforestation programme with cedar, ebony and mahogany seedlings.