The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) confirmed in the coastal community of Punta Alegre, northwest of the province of Ciego de Ávila, progress in the implementation of strategies for adaptation to climate change based on ecosystems. Teresa López Seijas, coordinator of the UNDP Coastal Resilience international project, described as positive the integration of local specialists, authorities and producers, oriented to the development and promotion of the Cuban State Plan to Confront Climate Change (Life Task).
She considered that Coastal Resilience, financed with four million euros from the European Union (EU), through the Global Alliance for Climate Change plus (GCCA+), achieves relevance in the progress of the aforementioned coastal settlement, one of the most affected in the country after the passage of Hurricane Irma in September 2017.
In Punta Alegre, more than 20 hectares of mangroves have been restored since 2020, despite the complexities in the epidemiological situation, and in 2022, the allocation of equipment is expected to allow progress in the rehabilitation of the compromised areas, she explained. The restoration of the mangroves will allow the creation of a natural containment barrier that will dissipate marine energy in the face of extreme weather events, will prevent coastal erosion, will reduce the salinization of the soil and will ensure the protection of numerous animal species, according to reports during the visit.
In cattle farms and various crops, the UNDP official confirmed the recovery of the coastal ecosystem, the application of science to food production and the rescue of ancestral practices such as water harvesting to meet basic needs during long periods of drought.
López Seijas appreciated the completion of the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Center in the municipality of Chambas, resulting from the project, the first in the province and the forerunner in the country of an integrated vision of this activity, by linking up with the Territorial Delegation of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment.
This facility, which should be inaugurated at the end of this month, has two fundamental purposes: to strengthen disaster risk reduction and integrate it into adaptation to climate change, so that possible impacts are anticipated and timely measures are taken to minimize them, she specified.
Coastal Resilience aims to strengthen and integrate disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change in the socio-economic development plans of sectors and governments of vulnerable coastal municipalities, stressed Master of Science Yohanis de la Torre Galiano, technical director of the project.
In Cuba, she explained, four intervention sites were defined: Punta Brava, Playa Victoria, Punta Alegre and Santa Rita, located on the northern coast of the provinces of Villa Clara, Sancti Spíritus, Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey, respectively.
She pointed out that a direct impact is achieved in the municipalities of Caibarién, Yaguajay, Chambas and Nuevitas, while the replication actions extend to 11 other territories, where the transversal nature of climate impacts and their relationship with socioeconomic development planning is recognized.
Some 600,925 people will benefit from this initiative, led by the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, through the Environment Agency and its National Group for Risk Assessment, with the support of the UNDP and the participation of Civil Defense, Agriculture, Hydraulic Resources and Physical Planning.
