Natural history and environmental issues of Cuba

Fifteen students and three faculty, led by Tod Frolking and Alan Stam, from Denison and Capital Universities participated in the first May Term trip to Cuba. The group engaged in a wide range of activities from guided hikes through a variety of forest ecosystems and terrains; to discussions with campesinos, cooperative farmers, and urban gardeners; to wiffle ball games with neighborhood kids; to evenings of music and dance in Havana and Santiago. Our local guides were all friendly and well informed. The fact that the trip was sponsored by CITMA (Ministry of Industry, Technology and the Environment) gave us the opportunity to meet with specialists and travel to places not open to general tourists. Based on student responses, we are planning a few changes to this year's May Term that should make what was a very good trip even better.

Current Denison students who participated in last year's trip are: Trent Anderson, Emilie Cooper, Adam Daigneault. Sara Damrow, Irena Draksic, Yurika Ito, Belinda Mills, Ilana Schonfeld-Hicks, Emily Townsend and Mike Traven. Feel free to contact them for their insights into the trip.

Trip Overview

Given the present economic difficulties, Cuba has taken a surprisingly aggressive approach toward addressing a number of environmental issues and problems. This trip provided an overview of the past and present economic and social conditions in Cuba as we examined critical environmental (and socioeconomic) issues in Cuba. Key topics and locations include:

• Water pollution and the development of organic urban gardens in and around Havana
• Recent developments of environmental planning, policy and regulation
• Shifts from energy/chemical intensive agriculture to low energy/labor intensive agriculture utilizing organic fertilizers and integrated pest management
• The natural history of the mogotes landscapes in the Valle de Viñales and a sustainable development community in the Sierra del Rosario, Pinar del Rio Province
• Ecosystems and endangered species in the Zapata swamps, southern Matanzas Province and coastal dry forests and impacts of tourism on the Varadero peninsula in northern Matanzas Province
• Natural history, reforestation and rural energy projects in the Sierra Maestra, Santiago de Cuba Province
• The richness of Cuban culture everywhere.

A view of the stunning mogotés (tower karst) landscape developed in limestone in Pinar del Rio Province. This is the premier region of Cuban tobacco production, drying hut in right midground.	Roberto Novo (left), Professor of Geography at the University of Pinar del Rio, discusses tobacco production with the group and a tobacco farmer in Vinales valley in west central Pinar del Rio Province. Roberto, who led us on a hike through the mogotes terrain of the region, will be the director of a national park that is being established at Viñales.	Belinda Mills learns the finer points of tobacco farming from the president of the Antonio Casaro Tobacco Cooperative near Viñales in Pinar del Rio Province	Working rice paddies with oxen and transplanting rice seedlings, Sierra del Rosario in background, Pinar del Rio Province. With fuel shortages, much Cuban agriculture has shifted from tractors to oxen, often with positive environmental consequences.
View of the town of Las Terrazas and El Salon (575 m), the highest point in the Sierra del Rosario	Fidel, ecologist with the Las Terrazas Ecological Research Center, guides us on a hike through the forests above the town of Las Terrazas in the 25,000 ha Sierra del Rosario Biosphere Reserve in easternmost Pinar del Rio Province	Organic gardens and reforestation project at Las Terrazas, a U.N. Biosphere Reserve site in the Sierra del Rosario in Pinar del Rio Province.	Our group poses with Karen Wald, journalist and trip organizer, and Maritza Garcia, Director of the Las Terrazas Ecological Research Center - middle row left, at a former coffee plantation in the Sierra del Rosario
During the Special Period, tractor use at the 1050 ha and 250 member CPA Niceto Perez Agricultural Cooperative has declined from 55 to 32 due to shortages in gasoline and spare parts. The flat terrain and productive soils of this area of southern Havana Province coupled with its proximity to the city of Havana have helped this cooperative to be an efficient producer of a wide range of grains, fruits and vegetables	A lab at the CPA Niceto Perez Agricultural Cooperative produces four important fungal and bacterial biopesticides for their agricultural district. Operations like this reduce Cuba's need for chemical pesticides.	Screening reduces the sun's intensity at Olga Garcia's successful private urban garden in Miramar, a municipality in western Havana. This garden was established in 1985, mainly to provide local residents with high quality organic produce. Organic urban gardens, both private and cooperative, now produce about 30% of vegetables and fruits for Havana, as well as significant quantities in towns and cities throughout Cuba.	Organic garden in Havana, one of many urban gardens established by the newly created Urban Agricultural Department in the Ministry of Agriculture during the Special Period to provide fresh vegetables for urban residents and income for gardeners.
Leon Filipe (ecologist) and Toby Ramos (herpetologist) at the Cienega Zapata National Park Museum. Filipe led us on a tour of coastal vegetation communities, discussing the ecology of migrating birds and invasive plant species. Toby showed us the Cuban Crocodile breeding program.	A friendly greeting from a Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer) at a crocodile breeding and research station in the Zapata swamp (Carribean's largest wetland) in southern Matanzas Province. The distinctive yellow and black crocodile has smallest range and population of all crocodile species.	Snorkeling at Caleta Buena near Playa Giron to the west of Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) in sourthern Matanzas Province.	Sunset on the beach at Varadero -- we had a splendid view from our lodging on the beach in a home that was donated to the Presbyterian Church as part of a social service and educational center (CESERSE). Our stay helped to support the project that provides beach holidays for children and the elderly.
A quiet street in Campechuela in Granma Province in southeastern Cuba. With severe fuel shortages during the Special Period, horse carts and bicycles have become important modes of transportation.	A statue of Antonio Maceo, a hero of Cuba's prolonged insurrection against the Spanish in the mid to late 1800's, dominated the Plaza de Revolucion in Santiago de Cuba.	Edilina, a herbal medicine specialist, discusses the use of alternative medicines with Ilana Schonfeld-Hicks, Irena Draksic, David Pettersson and Pam Strunk at a clinic in Chivirico, Santiago de Cuba Province. With shortages of modern manufactured medicines during the Special Period, thje Cuban medical community has expanded the study and use of herbal medicines.	Our guides, Freddy Rodriquez (ornithologist) and Luz Margarita (biologist), at the observation deck on top of Gran Piedra (1214m), the highest point in Baconao National Park. The Sierra Maestra are home to about 1960 of Cuba's 3170 endemic plant species.
Cacti and dry scrub forest along the coast in Santiago de Cuba Province with the southern flank of the Sierra Maestra in view in background.	Perhaps a bit incongruous, a solar panel (from India) provides electricity for a rural home in the Sierra Maestra in Santiage de Cuba Province	Renovation of a building on Paseo de Marti in old Havana	Street scene on Paseo de Marti in old Havana with 50's vintage cars used as taxis, camel back bus converted from a semi trailer, and downtown buildings that were converted to apartments to help provide adequate housing following the revolution.