Agroforestry workers

The production of timber resources, the protection of biodiversity, the attention to protected areas, the reforestation of the hydro-regulatory strips, the improvement of the use and care of water and soil, and the production of food are significant premises for the agroforestry workers.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- Despite the setbacks of this calendar, these men and women of the forest, together with efficient management and valuation of their natural resources, await with encouraging results the Workers' Day of the sector, this June 21.

Agroforestry workerThe effort of those who have given everything to make the forests grow has not been little. The main results of the Agroforestry Company (EAF) Las Tunas validate its awards, and although there are great vestiges of a worsening economic and epidemiological situation, the motivations are not lacking to advance in the fulfillment of the proposed indicators and accelerate the rates to prosper in the national economy and the Company.

In dialogue with 26, Adalberto Guerrero López, general director of the EAF in the province, highlighted that - until the end of May - the export of charcoal, one of the important items for the economy, reached more than 548 tons; while, in the remaining productive indicators, such as sawn wood, it is met at 106 percent, with around 895 cubic meters. Likewise, the packaging modules reach a figure of more than 4,653 cubic meters.

Regarding forestry, the results are still not as planned. "It is necessary to increase the production of seedlings, the filling of containers, the placing of seeds, and silvicultural treatments, essential elements to guarantee future plantations," said the manager.

Other significant elements forge the EAF projections. According to Guerrero, “among the priorities is the strengthening of the program for the development of nature tourism, in which we already have good progress, the fulfillment of the environmental strategy until the year 2030 in conjunction with the actions of the Life Task; besides the implementation of the economic valuation of the goods and services of the ecosystems, as part of the United Nations International ECOVALOR Project, in which the municipalities of Puerto Padre and Jesús Menéndez intervene in the forestry sector.”

Other strategic lines are directed towards the development of self-sufficiency and the coconut and coffee program. The implementation of these guidelines is already in the making and, as the main results, the Agroforestry workers have planted more than 14 hectares of various crops, grains, and vegetables, and has four livestock modules in operation and five in progress, which will begin to produce in a short term.

Likewise, they focus on the production of coffee for which they achieve more than 80 thousand positions to plant 35 hectares. Another 200 are prepared in the municipality of Amancio, and concerning coconut, approximately 30 hectares have already been chosen for planting.

The activities for this celebration will be made with small groups and strict compliance with the measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. A date that will not go unnoticed because although there is still much to do, these men and women - seeds and trees in hand - give their best to build lives with more forests.