FAO Recognizes Cuba’s Work to Protect Forests

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 4 - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recognized Cuba’s efforts in the protection of forest areas and in favor of reforestation programs.To mark the beginning of the International Year of Forests, FAO released the State of the World’s Forests (SOFO) report, which comes out every two years and assesses the status of global forest resources. SOFO 2011 includes information on trends in forest management, production of forest products, and raw forest cover data.

Cuba annually increases its forest cover and the plan is to have 3.2 million hectares of forests areas by the year 2015, which is 29,3% of the national territory.

Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, reforestation efforts have been underway to counteract the deforestation suffered during the colonial period and as a result of the development of the sugar industry, among other factors.

As part of these efforts, Cuba has a center for forest research with seven experimental stations across the island and 1,200 forest engineers. (acn)