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Environment
and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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Environment
and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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UNESCO enters into action
by Reynaldo Fuentes Rodríguez
(translated from Spanish to English by Benjamin Sims, UNESCO consultant)
Dr. Dirk Troost, chief of the Environment and Development in coastal regions and in small islands program, this week travelled through the principal natural, urban and economic enclaves of the southern Havana Province, where a project for socio-economic and environmental evaluation and management is being put into place.
Included in the places visited by the representative of UNESCO (the agency supporting the project), were the settlements of the beaches Rosario, Mayabeque y Cajio, Surgidero de Bataban6 and the associated fishing communities of the latter. The visit enabled dialogue with the inhabitants, workers and State officials and provided a chance to witness first-hand the problems of the coastal region.
The project, similar to those in the Lesser Antilles, Jamaica and Haiti, is being developed and carried out by the Physical Planning Directorate of Havana Province and has the same objectives of improving the quality of life of the population and of development in balance with the environment. It involves a strategy utilising the terrtoriallaws that regulate, control and direct socio-economic and environmental transformation.
The strip in question covers 142 kilometers of coast, a good part of which is in constant danger of flooding because of the penetration of the sea-water penetration. For that reason, among the actions planned is the rehabilitation of the black mangrove and the conservation of the earthy and sandy spaces.
Dr. Troost and Gillian Cambers, consultant for this UNESCO program, met with leaders of the government in the province, specialists and representatives of institutions involved in the project with whom they had mutually beneficial exchanges. This visit constituted another important step in the process of attaining the planned objectives.
Source: El Habenero, Friday 11 May 2001
