The Cuban government has developed a plan to reforest the banks of reservoirs and banks of rivers and streams as part of measures taken to protect the watersheds, a local specialist said in Havana Tuesday.

According to engineer Arsenio Renda from the Forest Research Institute, the forest fringes are being increased at the banks of rivers, streams and reservoirs with the purpose to protect the country's water resources.

In Cuba there are 632 river basins, with storage capacity of three million cubic meters.

Renda added that the forest fringes are the vital link between the use of the land in the basin and the system of water currents or the body of water.

Citing the Cauto River Basin, the largest in Cuba and located in the east of the island, as an example, Renda said more than 93 percent of the shores of its 19 reservoirs and nearly 92 of the banks of several rivers and streams were reforested.

Cuba has a forest cover of 25.7 percent and has ranked as the leader in Latin America of forest growth for the last 50 years.