Cuban scientists restore the highest dunes in the Caribbean islands

 HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 3 (ACN) The highest dunes of the insular Caribbean, located in areas of the northern coast of Cayo Guillermo, in the central province of Ciego de Avila, receive the benefits of the project Rehabilitation of coastal dunes in the Jardines del Rey archipelago: an alternative for disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change.

Granma newspaper reported that the continuous work by scientists and other specialists made it possible to plant 1,174 seedlings of coastal mate (Cannavalia rosea), a vegetation that allows the retention of sand and favors the conservation of the dunes, in Playa Pilar.

The Center for Environmental Engineering and Biodiversity (CIBA by its Spanish acronym), the scientific entity in charge of this action of restoration and conservation of the flora, explained in its social media that in this way, the natural and tourist enclave is protected against extreme hydrometeorological events, by removing the energy of waves and strong winds, in addition to reserving sediments and safeguarding numerous species of animals.

According to Granma's article, the novelty of the procedure is that the plantings on the coast were made from similar ones established in the place, but conceived in a small greenhouse, through the technology of reproduction in tubetes, and with the use of various substrates (sand, worm humus and algae) that stimulate the development and growth of the postures.

The dunes located in the Coco and Guillermo keys are classified as the highest in the insular Caribbean, with very peculiar characteristics, because they are stabilized and do not migrate, and according to experts, they arose in the Holocene, so they are the oldest in the region.

The rehabilitation work of the coastal dunes is included in the Tarea Vida(Life Task), State Plan for the Confrontation of Climate Change, approved by the Cuban Council of Ministers on April 25, 2017.

Danay Rodriguez Ramos, CIBA agronomist and project coordinator, said that since that date the area of invasive exotic species, such as casuarina, Leucaena leucocephala and marabú, has been reduced by more than 21,000 square meters.