Over 500 years ago, 95 percent of the Cuban archipelago surface was covered by an exuberant forest.

It was not in vain that in 1492, when Christopher Columbus arrived in Cuba he did not hesitate in calling the archipelago the "most beautiful land"; without ever suspecting that years later a long process of disproportionate and irrational use would begin reducing its natural potential to alarming figures.

What else to expect from such colonizers, whose pragmatic glance did not allow them to look at trees but only planks?

A sad reality is found in Columbus' Navigation Dairy where, dazzled on the virginity of the Cuban forests, wrote that "it was glorious to look at," but later he thought that the dense forest "could be used to built vessels and countless number of planks and masts for the largest ships in Spain."

This action against nature on the island began, alongside the so called encounter of cultures, with an anxiety of the new tenants which did not stop eating away the forests until they reduced the island's "green treasure."

The situation reached its maximum expression during the 18th and 19th century and during the first half of the 20th, as a result of the cattle expansion, sugar cane cultivation, and the rapid exploitation of wood resources to satisfy the needs of the infrastructure.

In the 19th century, the degradation of the environment was already visible alarming. Cuba's National Hero Jose Marti wrote on the issue affirming: "the world is bleeding non stop due to the crimes committed against nature."

Since the dawn of last century until 1959, the forest covering the island was reduced from 54 to 14 percent. During this period an average of 70,000 hectares of forests were lost to economic greed each year.

The uncontrolled cutting, stimulated by financial interests, did not foresee the consequences of this phenomenon that led to the loss of biological diversity, soil erosion, the increase in the levels of carbon dioxide and the reduction of water supplies; many of the consequences still remains.

In consequence with this reality, since 1959, the Revolutionary government took important steps towards sustainable development, prioritizing policies and strategies for reforestation and the recovery of ecosystems.

Cuba currently has over 2.7 million hectares of forests, representing close to 25 percent of the national territory.

The statistics of the United Nations Agriculture and Food Organization places Cuba among the few nations in the world that has increased its forest areas with a rate of 67,000 hectares a year.

This development process pretends to reach an equivalent of 29.3 percent of the country by 2015.

The forests, those giant green promoters of life, produces oxygen and withdraws carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, constituting the habitat of countless number of fauna species, contributes a regular cycle of water and climate, controls flooding, avoids erosion and retains the fertility of the soil.

For these reasons, its protection is considered a key strategy to reduce climate change.

Despite this obvious situation and the efforts of many, there are those that still do not care in conserving the so called lungs of the planet and are only concerned by the dividends that could be taken from the harvests and the exploitation of natural resources.

Could it be pure irresponsibility or do many still ignore the fact that nature is wise, but not indestructible?

Humanity must be full of integral of knowledge that will allow it to act correctly for the sustainability of the future. We must recall that if there are no forests, there is no life.

From the Cuban News Agency

Photo by superbez, courtesy Flickr, cc by 2.0