Cuba expresses willingness to preserve Protected Areas

 HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 4 (ACN) The high priority given by the Cuban State in terms of its policies for the care of high ecological value areas marked today, in Havana, the beginning of the 13th Congress of Protected Areas, one of the nine to be held as part of the program of the 14th International Conference on Environment and Development.

Omar Cantillo Ferreiro, director of the National Center for Protected Areas (CNAP by its Spanish acronym), updated the participants on the current situation of the issue in Cuba, where there are 231 legally recognized protected areas, in their different designations and levels of preservation.

He said that these represent about 22.42 % of the total surface of the archipelago and 18.25 % of its terrestrial territory.

Cantillo Ferreiro specified that in these areas there are 784 with 381 thousand inhabitants, to whom training and awareness actions are directed in these matters and who actively participate in the groups in charge of the surveillance of these places.

Of these, he added, 384 settlements are located in coastal areas and 20 of them are threatened to disappear or be relocated in the event of the estimated sea level rise in the coming years.

The National System of Protected Areas brings together all natural, terrestrial and marine areas of national, regional and global conservation interest.

The CNAP, attached to the Environment Agency of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA by its Spanish acronym), is the governing body of this system through the Coordinating Board, made up of the main companies and organizations that work and are most directly related to the care of the areas.

The 14th International Conference on Environment and Development, together with its nine congresses and associated activities, will be held in different venues in the capital until July 7.

Cuba is hosting this important meeting with the purpose of promoting sustainable, inclusive and resilient development objectives with science and innovation in terms of environmental preservation.