During a session in Santiago de Chile, the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) acknowledged that, within the region of
Latin America and the Caribbean, Cuba holds the largest proportion of
forests areas with conservation purposes.

A FAO report on the situation of forest resources in 2010 placed the
Caribbean island ahead of Chile, Ecuador and Trinidad and Tobago.

The national forest area experienced an increase from 13.4 per cent in
January, 1959, to more than 25 per cent nowadays as a result of the
policies designed by the government for that purpose.

This areas had been negatively affected due to the indiscriminate cutting
down of trees during the colonial period and the rise of the sugar
industry, by U.S. capital, among other common factors of that epoch.

However, today the Cuban government is making constant efforts to foster
the planting of trees in more than 60,000 hectares of new plants,
including the so-called intensive or high quality plantations.

The aim is not only to re-establish wooded areas damaged by fires,
hurricanes, or by human action; but to increase it and recover endangered
forest resources such as the Cuban royal palm and cedar trees, as well as
other timber and fruit species.

Hydrographic basins, specially the Toa, Mayari, and Cauto rivers, in the
eastern region of Cuba; the Zaza, in the central part; and the Almendares
and Cuyaguateje, in the western region, will be prioritized areas for
these plantations.

This program also focus on reducing the cutting down of trees in mountain
areas, encouraging the use of fire lines, training forest rangers, and
spreading environmental education on the role of woods for human survival.

According to a member of the Forest Rangers Body, Raul Gonzalez Rodriguez,
in 2010, the country lost around 7,600,000 Cuban pesos due to forest fires
within the critical period from January through May, as 5,711 hectares
were damaged.

Gonzalez noted that the number of fires and its consequences was reduced
in comparison with 2009, which brought about losses of more than 11,600,
000 Cuban pesos and fires expanded to pasture lands, bushes, and sugar
cane and fruit plantations.

Cuba possesses a Forest Research Center, seven experimental stations and
nearly 1,200 forest engineers.

The present year was declared the International Year of Forests by the UN
in an effort to protect these indispensable ecosystems for life on Earth,
which in some areas have been affected as a result of using forest lands
for agriculture or urbanization.

International organizations estimate that about 13 million hectares, out
of a total of 4 billion, disappear every year in the planet.

Woods shelter 90 per cent of terrestrial biodiversity, filter 60 per cent
of water worldwide, and their development could significantly contribute
with eliminating poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals.