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Beach
Recovery to Benefit Tourism, Environment
Dalia Acosta
HAVANA, (IPS) - The restoration plan for
Cuba's tourism hot spot, Varadero beach,
has proved resoundingly successful,
achieving the retention of its famed
fine white sands, expansion of beach
width and preservation of the coastal
platform.
Five years ago, the governmental 'Oceanology'
Institute added a million cubic metres
of sand to the beach at Varadero, an
international tourist destination on the
island's northern coast, 140 km from
Havana.
Today, the sand retention rates reach 80
percent, says Alfredo Cabrera, director
of the Varadero Beach Recovery Office,
an agency of the Ministry of Science,
Technology and Environment.
Cabrera said that maintaining sand
quality took a large portion of the 1.7
million dollars that the Cuban
government invested last year in
environmental projects for the resort
area.
Known for its crystalline waters and
fine, white sands, Varadero was ranked
among the five best beaches in the world
in a survey of 23,000 international
travellers from countries around the
globe.
Among the measures taken to preserve the
beach, beyond the addition of sand, are
strict regulations on where new
buildings may be constructed and the
removal of any previously built
structures on the dunes.
”It's not like it was 30 years ago.
When I was a boy, the sand was so fine
that it was a nuisance, and now there
are parts of Varadero that could be any
other beach in Cuba,” commented local
fisherman Rodrigo Estévez.
But the changes at Varadero are not
obvious to most tourists. A survey
conducted by the Tourism Ministry found
that visitors were highly satisfied with
a range of aspects, including their
personal safety and the quality of the
beach.
The resort area today has 14,000 hotel
rooms, and there are plans to nearly
double that total, but such expansion
would take place under a strategy aimed
at minimising the environmental impacts
of tourism, say official sources.
The positive results of the Cuban
experience in preserving its beaches
were presented this week at the Fourth
International Convention on Environment
and Development, ending this weekend in
Havana.
Sixteen percent of the coastline of the
Cuban archipelago consists of extensions
of what experts consider high quality
sands, seen as one of the country's
leading natural resources.
The average width of the beach at
Varadero is 22 metres, and the average
height of the dunes is more than one
metre. Water temperatures average 24
degrees Celsius.
Scientists consider beaches one of the
ecosystems with least biological
diversity, due to their physical
homogeneity and low bio-productivity.
But they are vital for the early stages
of life of certain fish species and are
used by sea turtles for nesting. The
beach areas can be used for commercial
fish production, but their greatest
economic benefit is tourism.
Geographer Ernesto Tristá, of the
Oceanology Institute, notes that while
direct human impacts accelerate the
deterioration of the coastline, these
areas are also ”subject to natural
erosive processes that are linked to the
rising sea levels and stronger waves,”
associated with climate change.
Studies show that the earth's tropical
regions are suffering a sharp deficit in
sand production, attributed to rising
sea levels and the harm to sea life
caused by pollution.
Grains of sand are the product of
calcareous marine organisms, like
molluscs and coral, living at a depth of
eight to 10 metres.
The greatest harm to the coastline is
caused by urban expansion and waste,
deforestation, construction of roadways,
and the introduction of species that are
not compatible with the ecosystem.
Beach deterioration is a common problem
throughout the islands of the Caribbean.
A report by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1996
warned that intensive extraction of
beach sand and inappropriate engineering
of the coastline -- the construction of
jetties and dams -- were significantly
changing the profile and characteristics
of the seashores.
The situation is of crucial importance
in a region where tourism, centred on
vacationers' desire for relaxation at
the beach, is the number one source of
revenues for many countries.
Last year, most of the 1.7 million
tourists who visited Cuba made at least
a day trip to Varadero.
The greatest damage to the Varadero
beach occurred in the 1970s and 1980s
when, according to official sources, the
extraction of sand to be used in
construction was intensive and
unregulated.
A study by the Oceanology Institute on
coastal processes found in 1997 that the
beach had been experiencing losses of
50,000 cubic metres of sand annually,
and the shoreline was withdrawing an
average of 1.2 metres a year.
Similar deterioration was found in the
beaches of east Havana, where 24,000
cubic metres of sand were lost each
year, with the shoreline receding 50 cm
to a metre.
In that area, the removal of casuarina
trees and the failure to replace them
with another erosion-preventing species
meant that the winds carried away
enormous amounts of sand.
For those beaches, experts drew up a
project that includes sanitation,
reforestation, adaptation of urban and
environmental criteria, and demolition
of structures built close to the
shoreline.
”The beaches in east Havana will not
be like Varadero, but they have always
been good places, especially Santa María.
But today it is common to find areas of
rocks where there used to always be only
sand,” commented microbiologist Raquel
Díaz.
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