Integrated Management of the Great Northern Wetland of Ciego de Avila is under way

CIEGO DE AVILA, Cuba, Feb 2 (ACN) The implementation of a project based on the integrated management of the Great Northern Wetland of Ciego de Avila (GHNCA), the second largest of its kind in Cuba after the Zapata Swamp, adds to the country's efforts to achieve sustainable development and adaptation to climate change.

MSc. Vania Mireya Vidal Olivera, a researcher at the Biofood Research Center (CIBA) in the province, said that despite COVID-19’s effects in 2021, progress was made in updating the baseline, a major step toward these goals.

“This action includes characterizations and analyses of the behavior of climatic and meteorological variables, soil classification, surface and subway water quality, flora and fauna, landscape, archaeological heritage, socioeconomic activities and demography,” she said. “CIBA leads this task, which engages other GHNCA-run agricultural, fishing, tourist and other entities and organizations, such as the Provincial Meteorological Center (CMP) and the Territorial Delegation of the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment (CITMA).”

The unification of converging factors under the GHNCA’s plans to improve environmental, economic and social planning contribute to the development of sustainable and resilient systems, based on the evaluation of the climate in the 2050 and 2100 scenarios in order to achieve an ecosystemic balance through solutions based on environments and communities and to develop policies and strategic plans aimed at the conservation and rational use of natural resources.

“The project will favor the design of goods and services related to aquaculture, tourism and agriculture for the benefit of the local communities,” according to Yamilé Jiménez Peña, CIBA's deputy director of research. “It is part of Cuba’s Tarea Vida (Task Life) and other government programs spearheaded by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez to integrate science into local development.

Located in the north of the central Cuban province and declared a Ramsar Site, the 226,875 hectares of this huge ecosystem include three protected areas and a breeding center for the American crocodile, with hundreds of specimens that the GNHCA releases into the natural environment as soon as they reach adulthood.

World Wetlands Day has been celebrated on February 2 since 1997, in remembrance of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands in Ramsar, Iran in 1971, when it became the first agreement of its kind for the conservation and rational use of those ecosystems on the planet.