Cuban province advances in the recovery of areas affected by fire

HOLGUIN, Cuba, Jan 6 (ACN) The areas affected in 2023 by the large-scale fire in Pinares de Mayari, in the Cuban eastern province of Holguin, are already showing signs of recovery, after an evaluation carried out by specialists of the Center for Research and Environmental Services of this territory.

Carlos Peña Rodriguez, head of the Terrestrial Ecosystems Department of that institution, said to the Cuban News Agency that the loss lasted 25 days and mainly damaged the quality of the air, water sources and soils.

It also damaged plant formations, bird, mollusk and reptile populations, which have a high level of endemism included in the management programs of the Mensura-Piloto National Park, which was damaged by the flames.

Currently, work is being done to promote the organic regeneration of the areas with the least damage, a process that consists in the non-intervention of man so that nature itself recovers, he explained.

The Ministries of Agriculture and of Science, Technology and the Environment are intervening in the most damaged areas, and have been reforesting with pinus cubensis, native to the region, whose forests were destroyed by the phenomenon.

Likewise, in the mountainous areas, monitoring studies of biotic populations are being carried out to determine the return of those that sought refuge in safe places and to evaluate the presence of young individuals that have an impact on the reproduction of the species.

More than 85 % of the forest fires in Cuba are mainly caused by human action, due to the burning of pastures, poaching and the irresponsibility of passers-by, while only 8 % come from natural causes such as electrical discharges.

In the specific case of Pinares de Mayari, the primary outbreak began on February 19, 2023 in pasture fields of Vaqueria 14, located north of the settlement of Vivero 2, although the possibility that there were secondary outbreaks in other parts of the meseta and that they finally converged in a very large area of involvement is not ruled out.