When in 2022 CIBA changed from the Biofood Research Center to the Center for Environmental Engineering and Biodiversity, it «legalized», from its name, the cluster of areas of nature in which the services and research projects had been concentrated for years.
Not much else has changed there. Everything that is done inside and in the field of action continues to be a function of the economic development and sustainability of Ciego de Ávila. Perhaps it is outside, and not inside, where the work of the year has been the most outstanding, as stated by Levis Valdés González, its director.
The center exhibits as an achievement the increase in sunflower cultivation, with respect for agroecological practices and the use of beneficial native microorganism technology.
It is the result of advice on the production of human and animal food, to local private and state actors. In addition, work was carried out on the diagnosis of Azcuba production units, located in Morón, Ciro Redondo and Venezuela, with a view to crop diversification and meat production.
The researchers went to Chambas to incorporate an integrated approach to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. Not only with the application of surveys and training on natural solutions for the adaptation of ecosystems and communities, but also with a practical impact, with the preparation of personnel to model and calculate coastal flooding in the face of meteorological phenomena.
In the Great Northern Wetland of Ciego de Ávila, they spent the year determining anthropogenic and natural damage, and updated information on the behavior of the aquifer, the geological map and terrestrial vegetation.
The rehabilitation of coastal dunes in Jardines del Rey made progress in 2022 in the inventory of the flora of the dune ecosystem, the identification of weaknesses and strengths, and invasive exotic species in Las Coloradas beach.
This year, they also advised four undergraduate theses at the Ciro Redondo Municipal University Center and worked on vocational guidance for students at the Nguyen Van Troi Pre-University in Morón. The challenge for 2023 is to improve the indicator of scientific publications in category one and two journals, since only four in the year is a «still insufficient index».
It should be noted that its researchers are part of the working groups for the conformation, evaluation and follow-up of the Environmental Contamination Project and the Biodiversity Project, coordinated by the provincial government.
Science should not live by researching and «saving» results. Promoting and doing, as far as it is heard, is CIBA premise, today and always (Amanda Tamayo Rodríguez).
