CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

United Nations to Assist Cuba in Preserving Agricultural Biodiversity.

CUBA, February 7th, 2011.- Experts from the United Nations are presenting a project to contribute to the preservation of agricultural biodiversity in the six Cuban Biosphere Reserves. The project is being presented today in Havana. One of the goals of the meeting at the Hotel Chateau Miramar is to offer technical-scientific support to guarantee the preservation and the sustainable use of traditional genetic resources of the Cuban heritage.

Lazara Raymond Bofill, with the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, stated that another objective of the project is to foster bonds between national and international agencies and organizations working on this project. Representatives from Biodiversity International, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), among others, will participate in the initiative.

Cuba will be represented by specialists from the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Association of Small Farmers, the National Center of Protected Areas, and others. Biosphere reserves are sites established by countries and recognized under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Program to promote sustainable development.

In Cuba, after 1985, UNESCO recognized the areas of Sierra del Rosario and the Guanahacabibes Peninsula (between the western provinces of Pinar del Rio and Artemisa), Cuchillas de Toa (Holguin-Matanzas), Baconao (Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo), Cienaga de Zapata (Matanzas), and Buenavista (central-northern region of the Cuban archipelago) as Biosphere Reserves.
(Cubaminrex - ACN)