• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 07 / 07 / 2011

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2011.07.06 - 17:22:05 / radiorebelde.icrt.cu.HAVANA, Cuba.- The director of the Cuban Environment Agency, Gisela Alonso Dominguez, affirmed that forest cover 26.2 per cent of the Cuban geography as a result of a national policy for sustainable development. 

Alonso told ACN that about half of these areas are part of programs for the protection of nature, 31% is for timber production mainly, and 21.7% is part of conservation projects, during the International Convention on Environment and Development. 

She pointed out that the gradual growth of the forests in Cuba is the result of a national program for reforestation and rational use of lands. 

According to some statistics, in 1959, forest areas in Cuba only covered 14% of the Cuban geography; there was extensive agricultural and livestock production and the water, the soil, and the vegetation went trough degradation; and the residual wastes were not treated. 

A recent report by the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean of the UN program for Environment, notes that woods are only increasing in Uruguay, Costa Rica and Cuba in this region. 

That document states that these are three small countries with important environmental programs; whereas in the rest of the world, there is a tendency to reduce forest areas.
(ACN)