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NATURE CONSERVATION IN CUBA: REPORT ON A SPECIAL PAPER SESSION AND WORKSHOP AT THE 2001 ANNUAL MEETING

The special paper session and workshop on Cuba was promoted by the Board of Governors of the Society for Conservation Biology in response to an invitation from Cuban conservationists to hold the next international meeting in Cuba. Invited speakers to the annual meeting were Antonio Perera, Director of the National System of Protected Areas; Miguel Vales, Director of the National Biodiversity Program; Maria Elena Ibarra, Director of the Center for Marine Research of the University of Havana and President of the conservation NGO Pronaturaleza; Martín Acosta, Director of the Felipe Poey Museum of Natural History of the University of Havana; and Xiomara Galvez, head of the Empresa Flora y Fauna endangered species program.

Unfortunately, only two of the five speakers invited by the Board of Governors were able to attend the meeting. These speakers had travel authorizations from their government but their visa requests to the U.S. Interest Section were not approved on time. This delay in obtaining the visas created administrative/economic problems for SCB concerning room reservations, airfare reimbursements, and wasted time. Two of the guests who could not attend, Perera and Acosta, were precisely the ones that had spearheaded the meeting invitation to SCB, so discussions on this issue had to be postponed. This unfortunate situation drives home the need to have the U.S. government eliminate restrictions for U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba and to streamline the processing of scientific and academic visa requests by Cuban scientists and conservationists.

Pertaining this experience, analyses by the American Association for the Advancement of Science's (AAAS) Right to Travel Program concluded that often "The State Department may approve the visa very close to or on the day that travel is planned, which makes it impossible for the Cuban [scientists] to actually use the visa" due to logistics. AAAS says, "numbers [of visas issued by the U.S.] are meaningless because many were received too late for the intended travel to take place." And, in general, "AAAS believes that current [U.S. government] licensing requirements [to allow U.S. scientists to travel to Cuba] continue to interfere with the scientific enterprise." Many American and Cuban scientists still experience substantial difficulties in traveling between the two countries "to carry out legitimate research . . . and exchanges" (http://shr.aaas.org/rtt/index.htm).

In spite of these problems, the event was a success. The special paper session was standing room only. Moderator Eduardo Santana gave a presentation on the importance of Cuba for the conservation of biodiversity in the Caribbean region. Xiomara Galvez gave two presentations: one on the management and conservation programs for endangered birds in general and one on the specific program for the conservation of the Cuban subspecies of Sandhill Crane. Martín Acosta presented a paper on the dynamics of aquatic species associated with rice field "wetlands" and adjacent coastal natural wetlands, and a second paper on the volunteer research and environmental education programs at the Universidad de La Habana linked with the conservation of marine turtles. Mary Pearl acted as translator.

The workshop was also well attended by some 30 participants from more than 20 different institutions or organizations. Brief presentations of their work in Cuba were given by representatives of The Nature Conservancy, Wildlife Trust, World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation International, American Museum of Natural History, International Crane Foundation, and others. Xiomara Galvez and Martín Acosta presented an overview of the institutions and programs from the U.S., Canada, and other countries with which they have been collaborating, and described the agencies, universities, NGOs, and other organizations that conduct conservation and management work, research, and training in Cuba.

Some of the suggestions offered during the work session were

• Have SCB take a more active approach in promoting U.S.-Cuba collaboration and networking on conservation
• Identify SCB members who are linked with disciplines of interest for scientific and professional exchange with Cuba
• Facilitate use of SCB Sections and Chapters as mechanisms for ongoing exchange related to topics of local and regional interest
• Donate back issues of Conservation Biology and ensure it is received regularly at the two largest universities in Cuba
• Promote research-education-conservation linkages among universities
• Support protected areas and the conservation of priority regions of high biodiversity
• Help in the identification of important bird conservation areas
• Follow up on a previous invitation to hold an SCB meeting in Cuba linked to a cooperative initiative with wide support from Latin American countries
• Provide training materials on conservation biology developed for tropical countries similar to those designed by the American Museum of Natural History
• Describe and publicize successful conservation-collaboration projects in Cuba
• Develop a practical guide on how to establish cooperative contacts with parties in Cuba and put it on a web page
• Have Conservation Biology and the SCB newsletter solicit contributions on Cuba
• Arrange for a visit by key members of an ad-hoc committee to facilitate SCB exchanges with Cuban scientists

Eduardo Santana C.

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