Alexis Velazquez, Agriculture Ministry’s official in Las Tunas, said in 2010 more than 224,000 sacks of this renewable energy source were produced for domestic consumption, for a 11 percent increase with relation to the year before.

Velazques added that close to 3,900 tons of high-quality charcoal were produced for export, doubling 2009’s output.

Sergio Suarez, reforestation specialist, told CAN the increase on charcoal production has not damaged the forest areas in the province, because most part of the charcoal is obtained from the Marabu bush, which is undesirable plants widely found in stockbreeding regions throughout the island. 

According to Suarez, Las Tunas’s wooded areas have actually expanded from 13.8 to 14.5 % of the total territory of the province over the last three years.

The outcome is the result of a reforestation program calling for the planting of around 12,355 acres of trees a year with the goal of attaining 18% of the province’s area covered by trees by 2015.

Las Tunas, 670 Km east of Havana, is one of the most deforested provinces of Cuba and at the same time it shows the lowest rainfall average of the country with a little higher than 1,000 mm per year.