Unseen Cuba: First aerial photographs reveal island's spectacular beauty

[Judi Lynn]

Unseen Cuba: First aerial photographs reveal island's spectacular beauty
David Sim
By David Sim May 18, 2015 13:43 BST

Here's Cuba as you've never seen it before. Lithuanian aerial photographer and publisher Marius Jovaiša is the first artist to receive government permission to fly over the country and photograph it from above.


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Towering mogotes, cone-shaped limestone mountains covered in vegetation, are the signature geological feature in Valle de Viñales.(Unseen Cuba / Marius Jovaisa)
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More images:
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/unseen-cuba-first-aerial-photographs-reveal-islands-spectacular-beauty-1501542

General Discussion:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026689885

[leveymg]

1. Looks like an ideal site for McDonald's signs and casino billboards! $2 Craps!

[msongs]

2. $2 craps = mcdonalds value menu outcome? hmm nt

[FrodosPet]

7. A triple cheeseburger is $2.00

Yep, sounds about right.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Too bad no one can remove those unsightly mountains from behind the signs. n/t

[Beartracks]

5. There's probably a plan...

============

[Judi Lynn]

8. Yeah! That's the ticket! n/t

[Beartracks]

4. $1 craps on the value menu! n/t

[Beartracks]

6. Wow, very cool project. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

9. They've been monitored and praised over the years by the UN for their efforts in preservation

of their environment.

UN representative praises Cuban preservation of mountain ecosystems

Myrta Kaulard, representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), speaking March 18 at a meeting at Havana’s Comodoro Hotel, stressed that Cuba’s conservation project focused on mountain ecosystems contributes to the protection of the environment and sustainable development, using a novel and challenging approach which includes the participation of residents as key to the care of flora and fauna

Author: cubasi.cu | [e-mail]
march 20, 2015 15:03:15



Cuba’s mountain ranges are home to some 900,000 people, representing 8% of the population of the island, located in six river basins of national interest.

The country’s project focused on the conservation of mountain ecosystems contributes to the protection of the environment and sustainable development, Myrta Kaulard, representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), stated in Havana.

The official, speaking at a meeting in the Comodoro Hotel, stressed that this is a novel and challenging perspective that includes not only the cooperation of several sectors of the country, but also the participation of human beings as key to the care of flora and fauna.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2015-03-20/un-representative-praises-cuban-preservation-of-mountain-ecosystems

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The Nature of Cuba

Tiny frogs. Vast swamps. Pristine rivers. Whether by design or default, the island boasts the Caribbean's best-kept wildlands. But for how long?

By Eugene Linden
Smithsonian Magazine |
May 2003

The Nature of Cuba



On a winding road not far from the vibrant colonial city of Santiago de Cuba, we stop to admire a particularly stunning coastline of cliffs, coves and beaches that seems to stretch to infinity. And just inland are the towering Sierra Maestra. The lower slopes are a patchwork of grasslands and trees that give way at higher altitudes to dense forests. Clouds form, disperse and tatter around the peaks.

The road is empty, and no passing car disturbs the sounds of the surf and wind. “If I were a developer,” I say to Antonio Perera, an ecologist and former director of the Cuban government agency that oversees protected lands, “this is where I would site my hotel.”

“In that case,” he says, “I’d be fighting you.” Chances are, he’d win: Perera once helped defeat a plan to widen and straighten this very road.

During a recent 1,000-mile trip through Cuba to see its wildlands at this pivotal time in its history, I saw a lot of unspoiled territory that is largely a monument to battles that Perera and his colleagues have won: swamps bursting with wildlife, rain forests and cloud forests, grasslands and lagoons. Perera says 22 percent of Cuba’s land is under some form of protection. The percentage of safeguarded environment in Cuba is among the highest of any nation, says Kenton Miller, chairman of the Switzerland-based World Commission on Protected Areas.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/the-nature-of-cuba-81691555/#cFPvSwc6ZGQAoyBh.99

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Cuba: The Accidental Eden

Premiere date: September 26, 2010 | 0:00:30 | Buy the DVD 

- video -

Cuba may have been restricted politically and economically for the past 50 years, but its borders have remained open to wildlife for which Cuba’s undeveloped islands are an irresistible draw. While many islands in the Caribbean have poisoned or paved over their ecological riches on land and in the sea in pursuit of a growing tourist industry, Cuba’s wild landscapes have remained virtually untouched, creating a safe haven for rare and intriguing indigenous animals, as well as for hundreds of species of migrating birds and marine creatures. Coral reefs have benefited, too. Independent research has shown that Cuba’s corals are doing much better than others both in the Caribbean and around the world.

Scientific research in Cuba on creatures such as the notoriously aggressive “jumping” crocodile, and the famous painted snails, paired with long-term ecological efforts on behalf of sea turtles, has been conducted primarily by devoted local experts. Conservation and research in Cuba can be a constant struggle for scientists who earn little for their work. But their work is their passion, and no less important than that of those collecting larger salaries. NATURE follows these scientists as they explore the crocodile population of Zapata swamp, the birth of baby sea turtles, and the mysteries of evolution demonstrated by creatures that travel no more than 60 yards in a lifetime.

As the possibility of an end to the U.S. trade embargo looms, Cuba’s wildlife hangs in the balance. Most experts predict that the end of the embargo could have devastating results. Tourism could double, and the economic development associated with tourism and other industries could change the face of what was once a nearly pristine ecosystem. Or Cuba could set an example for development and conservation around the world, defining a new era of sustainability well beyond Cuba’s borders.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/cuba-the-accidental-eden-introduction/5728/





Cuba: The Accidental Eden
Photos: Cuba’s Natural Diversity
April 4, 2011

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/cuba-the-accidental-eden-photos-cubas-natural-diversity/5760/

[BlancheSplanchnik]

13. ......

[Judi Lynn]

10. Interesting post from DU'er magbana: . . . . “Creating Awareness to Save the Planet”

magbana Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-12-09 07:17 PM
Original message

International Conference on the Environment and Sustainable Development in HAVANA, July 3-12

Edited on Sun Apr-12-09 07:18 PM by magbana

The 7th International Conference on the Environment
and Sustainable Development:
“Creating Awareness to Save the Planet”

Havana, CUBA
July 6 - 10, 2009

Including Extended Research Tour and Site Visits:
July 3 – 12, 2009

How might U.S. and Cuban environmental scientists work together, in this uncertain environmental and economic time,
toward hemispheric sustainability?

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We at ECO CUBA EXCHANGE invite you to participate in the 7th International Conference on the Environment and Sustainable Development in Havana, Cuba, July 6 - 10, 2009 with an Optional Trip Extension before and after the Conference for further study and site visits, July 3 - 12, 2009.

Five Congresses:

Climate Change
Protected Areas
Ecosystems and Biodiversity Management
Environmental Policy and Management
Environmental Education and Action

~ snip ~

In its 2006 Sustainability Index Report, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) determined that there is only one nation in the world that could be designated as living “sustainably,” and that nation is Cuba. In making this determination, the WWF utilized a combination of the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index (educational achievement; adequate food; clean, available water; access to health care, etc.) and the Ecological Footprint (or natural resource use per capita) of nations. The ideal, of course is a high HDI and a low Ecological Footprint. How did Cuba, a small island nation of 11,000,000 people, struggling with issues of poverty, the U.S. embargo, and devastating annual hurricanes, achieve this extraordinary distinction? And what can environmentalists in the U.S. learn from Cuba’s struggles and successes?

Throughout the 1960's, 70's and 80's, the Cuban people enjoyed the highest quality-of-life indices in Latin America, rivaling the United States and other countries of the developed world. Cuba was internationally praised as the one developing country that had eradicated hunger and the World Health Organization touted the Cuban health care system as a "model for the world." In 1989, Cuba ranked 11th in the world in the Overseas Development Council’s Physical Quality of Life Index, (low infant mortality rate, high life expectancy and close to 100% literacy).

After the setbacks of the 1990's, caused by the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the tightening of the U.S. Embargo, Cuba's quality of life indices did decline slightly for a few years, but then steadily improved. Denied their former imports of petroleum products and pharmaceuticals, Cuba’s 35,000 scientists, operating in 200 research institutes across the island, began to explore indigenous and more sustainable ways to meet their food, medicine and energy needs. Extraordinary innovations in organic agriculture and urban gardens earned Cuban agriculturists the Alternative Nobel Prize/Right Livelihood Award; advances in renewable energy including solar, wind, micro-hydro, biogas, and biomass, and island-wide energy efficiency campaigns earned the Cuban NGO Cuba Solar the UN Global 500 Award; and the development of alternative and traditional health care practices earned this Cuban program recognition by the United Nations Development Council, as one of the five most important projects in health care internationally.

Cuba was the one of the first nations to complete its biodiversity census after the Rio Earth Summit in 1992; 25% of its land is officially designated "Protected Areas;" it’s coral reefs are healthy (Jacques Cousteau used to say that whenever he was in despair about the state of the world's oceans, he thought of Cuba and his hope was rejuvenated); and Cuba is one of the few nations in the world to have increased its percentage of forested land in the past several decades.

More:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x13897

[BlancheSplanchnik]

14. that's encouraging, after reading the previous post....

I hope they prevail and that the rest of us learn from them.

[DFW]

11. I got a brief glimpse of that around 30 years ago.

I had been invited down there by their government, and it was just before Reagan imposed travel restrictions. They drove me around, mostly in Havana, but I got a glimpse of the mountainous hinterlands, and it looked beautiful. I hope they don't let it get turned into an overdeveloped wasteland just because they are starving for development money. They were already that 30 years ago, and from what I hear (some friends of ours were there 3 weeks ago) that hasn't changed.

[lonestarnot]

12. Gawd, I hope it isn't ruined before I get there.

[secondwind]

15. We were there in 2011.... Reminded me of Jurassic Park. n/t

[HelenWheels]

16. So beautiful

I knew it must be beautiful but I had no idea just how wonderful it was. Thanks for the pictures.