With a view to ecosystem-based adaptation, and in harmony with territorial and community development plans, the Mi Costa project (My Coastline), implemented by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment (CITMA), with the support of the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP), will contribute to strengthening climate resilience in the three municipalities of the southern zone of Las Tunas.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- Jesús Rosabal Neira, a specialist from the Provincial Delegation of CITMA, told the local radio that the environment in which this project will be developed is under permanent threat from floods, erosion, drought, and sea-level elevation, among other natural phenomena.

The initiative, with the financing of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), will strengthen coastal resilience to climate change and make it possible to provide assistance to vulnerable populations and protect coastal ecosystems.

The project aims to protect and restore natural habitats such as reefs, marine pastures, and mangroves; as well as help to take care of the community environment of current and future risks due to severe tropical storms, hurricanes, and other events related to climate change.

This initiative has great and vital significance for the archipelago since its scope is extended to more than 1,300 kilometers in two sections of the southern coast of Cuba, which comprise 24 municipalities located in the provinces of Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Ciego de Ávila, Camagüey, Las Tunas, and Granma. It will favor 1.3 million people, about 12 percent of the total population.

Its implementation corresponds to the CITMA Environment Agency and it is linked to the State Plan for the confrontation of climate change, the Life Task. It is the first of its kind to which the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment has access.