Inhabitants of communities with future effects due to the rise in the average sea level, organizations linked to socioeconomic activities on the coasts, and academic and scientific institutions, participate in the popular consultation of the Coastal Decree Law Project in the province of Ciego de Ávila.
Alejandro González Díaz, specialist from the Territorial Delegation of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA) specified that the process began with the Coastal Zone Management Workshop, where they presented the objectives and preliminary results of international projects that contribute to the rehabilitation of riverside ecosystems.
He stressed that, this month, in properties, consultations must be carried out with entities attached to the Ministry of Tourism and the Gaviota Hotel Group; meanwhile, the discussion in the Inter-institutional Council of the Natural Resources and Environment Macroprogram is scheduled for December.
Progressively there will be exchanges with residents of coastal settlements, political and mass organizations, university and research centers, and other entities whose management is linked to the coastal ecosystems located to the north and south of the province, he added.
He told that these localities are identified as the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to the retreat of the coastline, the penetration of the sea and floods due to the occurrence of hydrometeorological events, for which global financing is allocated to strengthening resilience.
In the case of Coastal Resilience, it promotes the natural and assisted regeneration of mangroves, in addition to creating capacities in the inhabitants of the town of Punta Alegre, in the north of the territory, to strengthen and integrate disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change in socioeconomic development plans.
Mi Costa will provide knowledge to residents in the coastal community of Júcaro, in the southern portion of the territory, and will improve the material conditions to adjust to the prevailing environmental conditions on the planet and integrate ecosystem-based adaptation (ABE) to the planning of the local progress.
He clarified that the EBA consists of the recovery and strengthening of the coastal wetland services (mangroves and swamp forests, fundamentally), which will allow the dissipation of the energy of extreme waves and strong winds in the event of hydrometeorological events.
Both projects address the main elements of the Cuban State Plan to Confront Climate Change (Life Task), by designing actions aimed at improving the quality of life and well-being in communities located on the coast.
They respond to the interest of protecting the coastal zone and achieving adaptation to climate variations in the most vulnerable municipalities on the north and south coasts of Cuba, he said.
González Díaz emphasized that the future Decree Law of Coasts has the purpose of establishing the mechanisms, actions and instruments that are executed in the coastal zone and its protection area, aimed at the administration and sustainable use, through conservation, environmental management and monitoring.
Regulates activities in human settlements and socioeconomic development processes in those ecosystems.
It introduces as main novelties the incorporation of contents of directives for confronting climate change, issued in 2011 and 2016 to safeguard coastal communities, sandy beaches, mangroves and coral reef crests, also meant the Coordinator of Mi Costa in Ciego de Avila.
In addition, the width of the coastal zone and the protection zone are expanded, it defines seven types of coastlines and delimits institutional responsibilities, in addition to addressing issues related to territorial and urban planning in these spaces.
