ENVIRONMENT-CUBA: Viñales Valley at the Crossroads of Tourism

By Patricia Grogg and Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta and Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Oct 10 2000 (IPS) - Few travellers can resist the temptation of entering Bárbara Caridad Miranda’s garden when they visit Viñales, a unique Cuban town that today faces the challenge of cashing in on tourism while maintaining its environment and cultural identity.

Miranda is known as “the botanist” because of her extensive knowledge about the wealth of flora in the valley, wisdom inherited from her grandparents and her father, who in 1918 began the garden that surrounds the old family mansion in the town, in the western province of Pinar del Río, some 180 km from Havana.

What stands out in most of the structures in Viñales, built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is their red roofs, the arcades with their tall columns and the colourful stained glass windows.

The town is in the heart of Viñales Valley, which was added as a Cultural Landscape in 1999 to the World Heritage list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

“Rooms for rent,” read signs posted in the windows of numerous houses, more and more in the last few years, written in Spanish, English and French.

Of the 1.6 million tourists who visited Cuba in 1999, nearly 238,000 travelled to Pinar del Río to take in the natural beauty, especially the mounds of Viñales Valley, with their vertical sides and flat tops, reaching heights of 400 metres.

Thousands of people pass through the province each day, many on day trips, whether on their own or organised by government-run travel agencies.

Most are from Europe, primarily France, Britain, Germany and Italy, though 6,560 US citizens were recorded last year, despite the legal obstacles existing in their home country for those who want to visit Cuba.

The tourists who stay for a longer visit generally tour the tobacco plantations, the region’s leading export, or they climb one of the mounds, where members of a community known as the ‘Acuáticos’ are said to cure their ailments with water.

In her garden, Miranda slowly and carefully explains the names and traits of each plant to tourists, a job that now fills her time. “Before, I liked to recommend medicinal herbs to the sick,” she says.

The old house is lost among the lush vegetation. The entrance, guarded by a small gate that any visitor can open, is adorned with vivid fruits that, Miranda confesses, “are only there to attract passers-by.”

On the walls of her house hang postcards, letters and gifts that have arrived from around the world. A man from the Netherlands tells her about his love life in one letter, while a young Colombian woman reports on how well a plant Miranda gave her is growing.

In the back, two young women are in charge of maintaining a stand of exotic tropical fruits, whole or peeled, as an enticement for the tourists after they finish their tour of the garden, which can last more than an hour.

Miranda does not hide the fact that tourism changed her life – bringing with it some benefits. “The tourists usually make some contribution for the garden’s expenses or they leave a gift,” says “the botanist,” who is sought by visitors even though she is not included in the town’s official tourism advertising.

Promoted as the island’s natural cathedral for decades, the Viñales Valley is increasingly known as the “green Varadero,” in comparison with the Cubn beach resort of that name, famous the world over.

“It will be the ‘green Varadero’ in the sense of the quality of the product. We are attempting to develop Viñales with a perfect balance of environmental conservation. We don’t want concrete,” stresses Miguel Chang Peraza, director of tourism for Pinar del Río province.

The goal to develop tourism without compromising the natural surroundings seems to be clear for the authorities, who try to keep new construction in harmony with the landscape and work to limit its impact on the region’s plant and animal life.

The valley is just one of the natural jewels of Pinar del Río, the westernmost and oldest part of the island, formed 180 million years ago, according to scientific estimates.

The province is home to 36 protected areas and two of the six biosphere reserves UNESCO has designated in Cuba.

In Viñales, fossil remains of various types of dinosaurs, monkeys and sea turtles have been found, and the valley holds the largest system of caverns on the island, including the Santo Tomás, which so far has been shown to stretch 45 km.

Emblematic of the landscape are the enormous mounds. The vegetation of these unique hills and their adjacent forests includes the ‘ceibón,’ the caiman oak, La Sierra palm and the cork palm or ‘mycrocycas calocoma,’ which figure among the 17 botanical species unique to the region.

The cork palm has the unique ability to fix nitrogen in the atmosphere due to the bacteria known as ‘Beijerinckia,’ which lives within the plant, considered a “true plant fossil.”

Among the many brightly coloured birds found in Viñales are the ‘tocororo,’ ‘cartacuba,’ nightingale, ‘tomeguín del pinar’ and San Diego’s ghost.

“It’s a cultural landscape in the making, because alongside its natural beauty is human activity, which is manifest in working with the land, especially in growing tobacco using traditional methods,” says Margarita Elorza, a National Heritage expert.

She points out that the commitment to maintaining and preserving Viñales Valley has existed since 1979, when it was declared a National Monument.

But it is also safeguarded by the Cultural Heritage Protection Law and the National and Local Monuments Act of 1977, and the Environmental Protection Act. In addition, Law 200 of Environmental Contraventions went into effect last January.

Marta Rosa Acosta, an official from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment in Pinar del Río, says this set of laws constitutes a very useful legal instrument.

“Everything that is done in Viñales requires an environmental impact study beforehand, in order to mitigate effects on the surroundings,” explains, Acosta. “We also have to take into account what is planted, because all vegetation must be autochthonous.”

In the town, there are some 280 rooms available for tourists, either in hotels or privately rented, though tourism officials say the total can increase without creating any major environmental risks.

“Viñales has to grow as a tourist centre, it just remains to be seen in which direction and how. We must figure out how to integrate the socio-economic issue with the environment, reducing the impact,” says expert Gabriel Pérez.