ENVIRONMENT-CARIBBEAN:
Fighting Drought Begins with the Young
Orlando Matos

HAVANA,  (IPS) - Beyond the hotels and the bathing suits, the Caribbean landscape bears the scars of drought. To combat soil degradation and desertification, young people from 16 countries in the region will be trained in reforestation and sustainable development techniques as part of an environmental rehabilitation programme.

"This project is the largest sub-regional initiative" of its kind taking place in 2006, the International Year of Deserts and Desertification, Sergio Zelaya, the coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), told IPS.

The participating nations - 13 Caribbean island states plus Belize, Surinam and Guyana - aim to develop within two years "purely environmental activities, such as agroforestry, and others involving community organisation and training, and renewable energy," explained Zelaya, who is coordinating the Caribbean initiative.

To serve this purpose, a Training Centre for Sustainable Land Management will be established in Cuba, according to the agreement reached at a May 8-10 workshop in Havana. The Centre will be built in Las Tunas, in the eastern part of the island, about 650 kilometres from the capital. This province has suffered some of the worst effects of a severe ongoing drought.

Zelaya emphasised that "this project is highly novel and attractive, and includes the communities of the young, unemployed people who live in the environmentally affected rural areas."

In an interview with IPS, Mario Abó of the Cuban ministry for Science, Technology and the Environment (CITMA) said that the training centre would be Cuba's "main contribution" to the project, and added that CITMA would also work to "transfer technology" aimed primarily at "the expansion of sustainable practices that contribute to curbing desertification."

Abó added that the Cuban people could also contribute their practical knowledge, and share with the students from all over the region "their own national traditional practices for restoring or rehabilitating ecosystems that have been damaged to different degrees."

Cuba is currently suffering its worst drought in a hundred years. Last year the country's average rainfall was 952 millimetres, 69 percent of the historical average. In 2005, the lack of rainfall caused economic losses that were estimated at 1.35 billion dollars, and 2.6 million people had to be supplied with drinking water by tank trucks.

Although virtually the entire island is suffering from drought, the eastern provinces of Holguín, Las Tunas and Camagüey are the worst hit.

Elver Torres, the top-ranking CITMA official in Las Tunas province, told IPS that the drought has forced the people of the area "to change their habits and customs in relation to using and saving water."

Torres explained that the community has learned to "use only the water that is absolutely necessary," and has implemented a water-saving programme which includes "recycling as much water as possible, and changing from gravity feed irrigation to the drip method."

The executive secretary of the Convention to Combat Desertification, Hama Arba Diallo, said at the workshop in Havana that "the project will allow (Caribbean island states) to combat the problem their way, using their own experience and knowledge."

Diallo pointed out that soil degradation and drought in the region have had a negative impact on the sugar and banana industries, while running up a food bill of billions of dollars.

Hence the importance of training as part of the environmental rehabilitation programme embarked on by the Caribbean island nations. "It's cheaper (to combat drought) through prevention rather than rehabilitation," Zelaya said.

However, even at this stage, he said, there are disparities between Caribbean countries in implementing their plans to fight drought: some countries' plans are fully operational, while others have not yet been put into practice.

The programme will cost approximately 4.2 million dollars. One million dollars has been donated by Venezuela and a further two million by China, and the remainder will be contributed by civil society organisations in Italy and Spain.

The Caribbean island countries will provide another one million dollars "in kind," in the shape of their young people as trained "labour." "It's a high-profile initiative, but the costs are moderate," Zelaya added.

The Convention to Combat Desertification was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on Jun. 17, 1994, and entered into force two years later.

The Convention calls for "long-term strategies" for "the rehabilitation, conservation and sustainable management of land and water resources, leading to improved living conditions, in particular at the community level."

Zelaya was emphatic in his call to action: "Opportunity knocks, the time for drafting plans is over, it's time to get down to work."

The programme that was agreed in Havana will be officially unveiled in Panama City in July, when all the Latin American and Caribbean nations will be participating in the Eleventh Regional Meeting to combat drought and desertification.