During three years of implementation in the south of Las Tunas, the project Increasing the Resilience of Vulnerable Rural Households and Communities through the Rehabilitation of Productive Agroforestry Landscapes (IRES), eradicated to date more than 2,140 hectares (ha) of marabú and provided technical advice and training to the benefited producers.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- With an environmental character, IRES is strengthening in the municipalities of Jobabo, Colombia, and "Amancio," to the sustainable and resilient increase in agricultural production, aimed at guaranteeing food security and transforming scenarios sensitive to climate change.
Yoandry Gras Sianca, provincial coordinator of the project, exclusively told the Cuban News Agency that it is planned to clear some 17,000 ha of marabú until 2027, as well as mitigate the effect of other invasive exotic species and increase soil preparation and exploitation of agroforestry and silvopastoral systems in 652 farms.
More than 860 tons (t) of food were cultivated, also based on the creation of the Basic Business Unit of Integrated Technical Services belonging to the agroforestry company of Las Tunas, in the community of La Anacaona, to guarantee machinery, logistical advice, and the maintenance and repair of tools in the areas of intervention, added the specialist.
The gestation of IRES allows the training of some two thousand people directly and indirectly from strengthening agricultural studies, the implementation of local development programs, and six modules that protect the agroforestry heritage from a wide variety of timber forests, fruit trees, and various crops.
IRES also invests in the use of modern technologies for agricultural work, with the delivery of inputs and equipment such as tractors, chainsaws, machinery, animal-drawn seeders, plows, brush cutters, and logistical modules consisting of wheelbarrows, rakes, shovels, and other materials.
Funded by the Green Climate Fund and represented by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and in Cuba through the Ministry of Agriculture, the IRES program includes the gradual reduction of forestry emissions, livestock, and land use.
Although the project was approved for seven years, its impact on rural transformations is estimated to last more than two decades, and, among its most considerable effects on the ecosystem, it aims to capture two million 675 thousand tons of carbon dioxide.
