La Sierra de los Organos, located in Pinar del Rio, the most western province of Cuba, is a new proposal as a new biosphere reserve in Cuba for its high values of diversity. Some of them include over 1,200 plants and more than 160 animals.
La Sierra de los Organos, which includes Viñales National Park and 11 other protected areas, is formed by unusual limestone hillocks, intermountain valleys and river basins.
The Cuban Committee of the “The Man and the Biosphere” project is currently assessing that proposal, which finally must be approved by the Organization of the United Nations for Education, Science, and Culture (UNESCO), becoming the seventh region of the country holding that condition.
According to statements by Roberto Novo, a specialist of the Cuban Research and Environmental Services Center (ECOVIDA), Sierra de los Organos also contains the largest subterranean systems in the country and is considered one of the most extensive in Latin America.
La Sierra de los Organos also has Cuba's greatest legacy of extinct biodiversity, comprising of the skeletal remains of unique animals such as eagles, owls, giant almiquí, monkeys, and chiropters that inhabited in the Caribbean islands during Pleistocene and Holocene periods.
If La Sierra de los Organos was definitively approved as a Biosphere Reserve in Cuba by the UN, it would imply the integration of new actions and strategies with a view to carrying out conservation and preservation activities for the rational use of resources and sustainability of the environment.
La Sierra de los Organos, particularly the Viñales Valley, is one of the most attractive tourist resorts of the island including places like the Prehistory Mural and the remarkable Indian’s cave, where visitors can make an amazing journey on a cold subterranean river. Viñales is also the land where the best tobacco leaves are grown for the making of Cuban cigars, considered the best in the world.
A translation by: Silke Peaz Carr
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