Scientific and technical projects and services that respond to sectoral and provincial priorities to address climate change (CC), reduce disaster risks, protect the environment and advance food sovereignty, implemented by the Centre for Environmental Engineering and Biodiversity, based in the Avileño municipality of Morón.
Yamilé Jiménez Peña, director of this scientific institution, highlighted the participation in international programmes that promote the application of adaptation solutions based on ecosystems and communities, as alternatives to minimise vulnerability to CC in coastal communities threatened by rising sea levels and extreme hydro-meteorological phenomena.
In this context, capacities are being built among inhabitants and decision-makers to incorporate the risk perspective in territorial development strategies, and progress is being made in the preparation of CC adaptation plans, he added.
Other global initiatives promote studies on hazards, vulnerabilities and risks associated with drought and heavy rains, as well as strengthening the technical conditions for hydrometeorological monitoring.
Experiences in the rehabilitation of coastal ecosystems give it a leading role in projects that encourage sustainable tourism management in Jardines del Rey, Cuba’s second most important sun and beach destination and one of the most prominent in the insular Caribbean region.
Jiménez Peña emphasised the leading role achieved in this area through the implementation of the project «Rehabilitation of coastal dunes in the Jardines del Rey archipelago: an alternative for disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change», under which numerous scientific studies are being carried out.
In addition to investigating the conditions of the sand mounds, they promote a nursery to reproduce native plants of the dune ecosystems on tubetes, integrate disaster risk reduction in dune ecosystems into tourism activities and compile information related to the restoration of these structures. (Author:Román Romero López)
