The international project Mi Costa begins to take its first steps in Ciego de Ávila from the methodological point of view and the training of personnel, in order to guarantee resilience to climate change on the southern coast of the municipalities of Venezuela and Baraguá, through adaptation based on in ecosystems.

Among the objectives will be the restoration of the nexus and the functionalities of the marine and coastal ecosystems, in addition to strengthening the adaptive capacity of local communities, sectors and national planning frameworks.

The project will contribute to limiting the effects of climate change in these areas, including coastal erosion and flooding, as well as the advance of the saline intrusion wedge.

Alejandro González Díaz, territorial coordinator of Mi Costa in Ciego de Ávila, said that this year work would be done to establish capacity building centers for the technical-methodological training of community activists and other related personnel, who will be located in the municipal university campuses of Venezuela and Baraguá, as well as an attached classroom in the town of Júcaro.

Also, among the main challenges of the period is preparing the study of the risk of polluting load to terrestrial and underground waters (due to the dumping of pesticides, fertilizers, hydrocarbons). In addition, the Agroforestry Company of the province must complete its baseline for the construction of the landscape map to intervene.

"During this year we will begin to work on the technical projects to be presented in 2024, which would be part of the first stage of training the brigades and designers to standardize the mangrove management activities to be developed at the national level," González Díaz explained.

He specified that in the Júcaro area it is intended to plant around 300 hectares (ha) of mangrove species, which will be added to others through assisted natural regeneration to cover the 687 ha of mangroves planned in the project. Likewise, wetlands will be rehabilitated, grasslands and swamp forests will be recovered.

Along with Mi Costa, two local environmental development projects will be implemented that will contribute to their common objectives, which are: "Design of a management system for adaptation based on ecosystems of the town of Júcaro, municipality of Venezuela, Ciego de Ávila" and “Environmental rehabilitation of the Sabanalamar cove”.

This project will enter into synergies with others already established in the province and the country such as Living Mangrove, Coastal Resilience and Euroclima.

Mi Costa includes prioritized areas within the Life Task, a program of the Cuban State to confront climate change, and covers 1,300 kilometers of the southern coast of the island of Cuba, in 7 provinces and 24 municipalities.

The project will consist of an implementation phase for a period of eight years, followed by another operation and maintenance phase for 22 years. This initiative is financed by the Green Climate Fund of the United Nations Organization, and other national organizations.