Project Area: Eco Cuba Exchange Delegation Title: Sustainable Economies and Communities Delegation Dates: October 15-24, 2004

DELEGATION THEMES AND RATIONALE

The Sustainable Economies and Communities research delegation was designed as a response to increased interest in learning how Cuba is responding to the challenges of natural resource and economic sustainability within a more centralized planning model. Recent government supported projects and planning organizations suggest that Cubans are decentralizing development and economic growth toward the territories and smaller communities. The interest to Eco Cuba is to understand how attempts at sustainability are manifesting themselves in the planned economic system of Cuba, and thus, to provide information on a societal model of "planned local resource sustainability", its successes and its challenges.

The main resource and planning areas covered in the program were: National energy policy and renewable energy development in rural communities, sustainable agriculture in urban and periurban areas, watershed management, coastal and mountain ecosystems, urban planning and tourism. Several members of the delegation also participated in a one-day colloquium on "Strategies to Localize Development", held by an organization within Cuba's Ministry of Science Technology and the Environment (CITMA), which is dedicated to finding and disseminating throughout Cuba, the "best economic practices" of both a technological and a systemic nature.

An attempt was made to not only see the local projects, but to also understand government, community and NGO planning mechanisms that gave rise to the programs themselves. Thus, visits were planned with: The Ministry of Science Technology and Environment (CITMA); the Ministry of Foreign Investment (MINVEC); Cubasolar, the Cuban NGO entrusted with the promotion in Cuba of renewable energies and their relationship to environmental protection; EcoSol-Solar, the commercial arm of renewable energy promotion on the island and the Institute for the Integrated Development of Havana. A meeting was held with a leading Cuban economist, which helped to put Cuba's attempts at "resource sustainability "in the context of the extreme hardships they have overcome in the past 13 years after the collapse of the socialist trading bloc. The research team also met with community group representatives, and locally elected government officials to better understand local decision making, power structures and participatory mechanisms.

PARTICIPANT EXPERTISE AND RESEARCH INTERESTS

There were 11 delegation participants, 9 women and 2 men, from 4 states (California, New York, Ohio and Colorado). Their research interests ranged from Cuba's energy policy and sustainable agriculture, to coastal ecosystem protection and natural medicine practices. There were several specialists looking at the phenomena of Peak Oil and Decline (www.communitysolution.org), two urban farmers from New York City (www.justfood.org), environmental writers, project directors and students.

BACKGROUND INTO SUSTAINABILITY IN CUBA

Following the 1991 collapse of the former socialist trading bloc, within which Cuba had become dependent for its oil and food imports, Cuban society changed dramatically. Almost overnight Cuba, one of the most rapidly industrializing nations in Latin America, lost over 50 percent of its oil, and the country was on the verge of starvation. Over the first half of the 1990's, Cuba's GDP would drop by more than one third and its currency would decline in value to 1:150 to the USD. Cubans refer to this period as the Special Period. During the 1990's also, the United States would pass two noteworthy laws, the Torrecelli Act of 1991 and the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, greatly increasing the intensity and scope of its decades-old Embargo ("Blockade" to Cubans) against Cuba. These U.S. statutes are extraterritorial in nature, with the ability, therefore, of punishing not only Cuba, but also those nations trading with Cuba.

Today, 13 years later and after such extreme conditions: the Cuban peso is now at 1:26 USD; Cuba is producing 100% of its electrical energy from domestic oil supplies while at the same time being lauded internationally for its work in renewable energy development and energy efficiency measures; its urban and rural organic agriculture, in saving the country from starvation and creating a nationwide model of sustainable agriculture, is now world-renowned; no school or hospital was closed during the crisis and in fact, Cuba's infant mortality actually decreased during the 1990's; and since the 1992 Río Earth Summit, Cuba has been consistently involved in the international dialogue on sustainable development.

The unprecedented example of these resulting changes in Cuba, recognized by global leaders in environment and development, must be documented and added to the literature on sustainability. The importance of these topics, both for the survival of humanity and of the planet, necessitates that research be free of political bias and alternate agendas. The importance of cooperation and discussion on these matters must be paramount. Global Exchange hopes that, despite the unfortunate tawdry nature of the discussion of Cuba in the United States, a genuine analysis and discussion on the ongoing Cuban example of sustainable development can be achieved. We are determined to continue our efforts in this regard. We will continue to bring together US and Cuban natural resource specialists, and also to contribute to the literature on sustainable development through their reported findings.

RESEARCH FINDINGS

Energy Resources:

Several of the delegation participants were particularly interested in looking at Cuba's energy policy, in particular their renewable energy development and conservation efforts, as well as how the population is dealing with the energy crisis that began in 1991 with the dissolution of the socialist trading bloc and the loss of cheap oil from the USSR.

On the delegation was a team specializing in the research of Peak Oil and Decline, who saw in Cuba a country that had experienced, with the energy crisis of the Special Period, a sort of "false Peak Oil". Their interests were to see how a society can survive this shock, and to learn of the policies put into place to manage such an energy shortage. Their work in the U.S. is to help provide alternative community models that nations can turn to in responding to Peak Oil and the resulting decline in world oil availability (www.smallcommunity.org) . They believe that a crisis is at hand that will mean global oil scarcity brought on by the imminent peak and decline in world oil production. "Because we in America are about to enter our own 'Special Period'", one member states, "we can learn much from Cuba's successful response. (Success in this context, according to the researcher, means that Cuba did not collapse, undergo civil war, experience massive famine and die-offs, or experience a precipitous drop in any social, educational or health indicators.)"

They found the Cubans involved with renewable energy programs to be "extremely well grounded as well as technically competent". They note that Cuba must work with smaller RE systems for practical and economic reasons and that that could be an advantage to them, as industrial nations are committed to massive projects of multiple giant units, with difficulty of integration into the national grid, while smaller system research has been downgraded in recent years. They state that "Cuba seems to have pushed implementation (of RE) down to the local level with small wind power and local PV systems." To date, 5,500 R.E. systems have been installed nationwide, generating 1.2 megawatts.

One community visited by the delegation was Los Tumbos, in the province of Pinar del Río. It is a small coffee growing community, population 153 divided between 53 homes, most of which have a 12-watt Cuban made solar panel atop their roof. These modules are typical now in the homes in the Cuban countryside, at least in the 5% of the population that doesn't have access to the national grid. The modules power a small radio and compact fluorescent light, and thousands too, have been given to teachers who teach in the most remote parts of the Cuban mountains. These modules are also being considered for export. (Their champion and chief promoter in the country, a middle school teacher in Holguin province, is affectionately called "Aladdin" by his peers.)

In Los Tumbos there is also a community center/video room/library powered with PV modules. It has (2) 165-watt panels which provide electricity for a color TV, VCR and 6 compact fluorescent lights. Photovoltaic panels are also installed on the health clinic, where a doctor and nurse serve the community, on the coffee cooperative which is the main local economic entity, and on the small primary school, which also has a TV and VCR, as well as a computer. In fact, as of 2003, all schools in Cuba have at least one computer, even the schools with only one pupil, and there are over 2,300 schools that are electrified with Cuban-made solar panels.

In order to provide background to the site visit, the group also met with representatives of Cubasolar (www.cubasolar.cu), the Cuban NGO entrusted with the promotion of renewable energies on the island and with awareness of the environmental impacts of different energy sources. They work in research and development of product lines, the installation of the nation's renewable energy projects and in education of the population, both formally in the schools, universities, workplaces and research centers, but also informally through TV and radio, and through their quarterly magazine, Energy and You. Ten thousand copies of this magazine are printed every 3 months, and each edition is delivered to schools, libraries, political offices and magazine stalls nationwide. There is also an on-line version of the magazine available on the Cubasolar website.

Global Exchange has been participating in Cubasolar's biannual international conference since the group's inception in 1994. (Last year 2004, the delegation team organized by Global Exchange was prohibited from attending the conference by the Bush Administration. Plans are being made, however, to send a team to the 2006 conference, and congressional support is already being sought for this purpose.)

The group also visited the offices of EcoSol , the commercial arm of the renewable energy movement in Cuba. It has a mandate to "create a market for renewable energies." It specializes in the design, marketing and installation of photovoltaic systems, wind sytems, wind/PV hybrid systems, solar hot water heaters (they have patented a design that can be assembled in the field and thus is easier to transport) and solar dryers. The company sells 50% of its PV systems to "social projects" (schools, health clinics, community centers, remote ecological stations, etc) at a discounted rate, and sells the other 50% of its products to the telecommunications industry, to tourist facilities and to other businesses.

EcoSol is also beginning to export Cuban made PV panels to Latin America, Europe and Japan. The company is run for profit, is successful in turning one, and is growing each year. The company pays about 50% of its profit in taxes to the government. One delegation participant found this combination of high taxation and mandated "social sales" to be like "a ridiculously high corporate tax structure". Others saw it as a model that seemingly defies market 'logic' in that it is a financially successful business, although highly taxed and with a government mandate to gear at least half its product sales toward projects of social welfare at discount prices.

Energy policy is a key indicator of a nation's commitment to sustainable resource use. If energy conservation efforts, efficiency measures, renewable energy development and realistic consumption levels are all encouraged and implemented through public policy (affecting both the private as well as the public arena), a nation can be said to be attempting energy sustainability. The search for domestic conventional energy supplies in tandem with the above-mentioned measures, greatly increases a nation's energy independence and allows its government to make energy policy freer of the shackles of international oil interests. The Cuban example today comprises both a search for domestic oil sources as well as extensive work in conservation, efficiency and renewable energy resources. The challenge is to maintain the consciousness of energy frugality, both in the population and within policymaking, while at the same time now having greater access to conventional domestic energy resources.

Sustainable Agriculture:

Several delegation members were also specialists in sustainable agriculture and interested in researching the now well-known model of Cuban urban, periurban and rural agriculture. The group visited sites in each of these three areas. The drastic change in agriculture in Cuba, as well as in energy planning, has been a product of the necessities imposed by the Special Period. The intersection between the two, energy and agriculture, was also made apparent during the crisis.

Because Cuba was dependent on direct food imports and on external energy inputs for its domestic food production, when they lost their access to oil, the system collapsed and many Cubans went hungry. All Cubans lost 10-20 30 pounds and more, but because food was rationed and therefore distributed roughly equally, Cubans went hungry but they did not starve. In order to survive, they went from having the most highly mechanized agriculture in Latin America, with large scale, oil-intensive, chemical-industrial production, to animal and human-powered rural agriculture and small scale, local, organic urban agriculture. Agricultural exports declined sharply and petroleum-based food transportation from the countryside to cities became increasingly supplemented with urban and periurban gardening.

Tens of thousands of Cubans through individual and coordinated efforts took the initiative and set up community gardens in their neighborhoods to provide low-input, local produce. The Organipónico de Alamar, a periurban farm visited by the group, is an example of a worker's collective that runs the farm, the produce market and a restaurant. The farm is on land that used to be open, periurban space surrounding large apartment complexes housing thousands of families that were build in the 1970's from the Soviet mass housing model. On the expansive farm, hand tools and human labor save petroleum, vermiculture (worm composting) creates productive soil, drip irrigation conserves water, and diverse produce creates a local food source to provide to the neighborhood. One delegation participant describes the business model as a "participatory-capitalist model", that shows the importance of cooperation and also of "how people could live in dense neighborhoods while working on (or buying produce from) a farm close by." The farm is also a local source of employment for area residents.

On the farm in Alamar, the group saw rows of vegetables, fruits and herbs, especially lettuce, tomatoes, tubers and Noni, a highly-valued medicinal herb popular in the U.S. (Noni was seen on several of the agricultural visits). The farm runs a small center where they manufacture and sell herbal supplements, or "green medicine" as it is called in Cuba, from herbs grown on the farm. Much of the produce grown at Alamar and other farms is sold to schools, day care centers, hospitals and other social entities. The surplus is then sold to the public through the on-site market. Ornamental household plants are also grown and sold at the farm.

Pesticide use has dropped tremendously as farmers use more natural and organic means, such as basil and marigold, to ward off harmful insects and diseases. Also, intercropping with dense rows of a variety of vegetables helps to control pests. Such Integrated Pest Management (IPM) was not practiced in Cuba before the Special Period. Now, however, it is widespread and common, with dozens of research and training centers across the country specializing in IPM. That is not to say that chemicals are never used on a farm like Alamar, but they are used in an emergency only, if there is a danger of crop devastation.

Where there is not enough land for such large projects, neighborhoods plant rooftop gardens, have backyard farms or patios, and even put raised beds in parking lots. The group visited several urban agriculture projects of an organization called the Antonio Núñez Jiménez Foundation for Nature and Humanity. The organization is named for its late founder who was a leading Cuban naturalist. The foundation promotes sustainable urban living through the principles of permaculture, which emulates the natural patterns of land, energy and water in order to maximize productivity. It provides training to urban residents interested in growing food on their property, both produce and meat. Says one participant, "what impressed me was the integration of the food raising environment as well as the integration of producer and consumer" and the low energy inputs of such a model. He adds that 'the fossil fuel used in a comparable product line in the US would be at least an order of magnitude more."

The group visited the Foundation's Patio Communitario in Cerro municipality. The Patio is a private home who's owners turned it into a community center for permaculture learning, and also a living garden, where the space from patio to rooftop is used to grow food with minimal input from outside sources. Integrated into the system are old tires used as planters, wire fencing used as trellises, and old ship barrels as raised beds. Outside the kitchen window was a compost bin, where scraps could be easily tossed, and next to that, a worm bin, where vermiculture turned the scraps into worm castings and rich planting soil.

A narrow staircase led up to a rooftop garden. There, grapes were growing on fencing and trellises, providing shade necessary for other plants and bearing fruit, which was turned into wine and sold locally to neighbors. The group learned that grape growing and wine making for local sale is a popular endeavor for many urban agriculturalists in Cuba. Among the grape vines were raised beds full of flowers, vegetables and culinary and medicinal herbs. All of this produce was for both private consumption and local sale. The Foundation estimates that 50-80% of all produce consumed in Havana is grown in urban and periurban garden plots and farms.

The group visited a second type of urban "garden" that focuses on urban animal husbandry using permaculture principles. The small animal farm was also atop the roof of a private home, and in a highly dense neighborhood. On just a few hundred square feet, rabbits, guinea pigs and chickens were being raised for meat and eggs. Several types of plants were also grown, namely corn, collard greens, herbs and noni. Fertilizer for the vegetables was gathered from the animals, and some of the plants were themselves used as food for the animals. There was also a hot compost bin consisting of mainly animal droppings and kitchen scraps donated from area residents. The rabbits and guinea pigs were fed with grass donated from a nearby baseball field, and the guinea pigs, who scurried on the rooftop floor, ate the droppings of the rabbits who were in cages above them. The farmer sells eggs and meat to his neighbors, who gather regularly for potlucks and dinners. The farmer also teaches his integrated food production system at the local permaculture center once a week.

The group also saw examples of Cuba's rural agriculture with our visits to the Las Terrazas "intentional community" within the Sierra del Rosario Biosphere Reserve, and to the nearby solarized community of Los Tumbos. In the former, residents grow organic vegetables and shade grown coffee for local consumption and to provide vegetables and coffee for the local eco-tourism industry which has thrived around the community. In fact, one researcher found interesting the combination of tourism and local (and visible) farming and notes that this is a-typical of "many counties in the Caribbean that have opted to give up farming and let tourism lead the way." In Los Tumbos, group members were able to appreciate the deeper meaning of the term "sustainable agriculture". In addition to learning of the local, shade grown coffee farming, participants were able to see that a just and "sustainable" practice of agriculture must not only take into account the natural systems such economic activity affects, but also the human systems and communities that are involved in agricultural production.

In Los Tumbos, the group was able to see a community for example, typical throughout the Cuban countryside, where young people participate collectively and enthusiastically in the local harvest; where medical attention is local, free and available to all; where housing (and now electricity) is a right for all; where the education of rural children is on a par with urban children in the country; and where entertainment, cultural enrichment and continued learning are considered an entitlement for all community members. One group member, a health care specialist, noted that the presence of health teams in agricultural cooperatives as well as other social centers in Cuba, prevents health care problems "from exacerbating, driving up costs as they become more severe." It was realized, therefore, that "Sustainability" in agriculture, especially in historically neglected rural areas, encompasses many more than just environmental considerations.

Water Resources:

The management of water resources worldwide has become a key issue in sustainability studies. Both the sustainability of human-designed systems such as water supply and wastewater treatment, as well as the conservation of natural water systems, both marine and terrestrial, are at once problematic and imperative. Two areas relating to water resources that the delegation looked at in Cuba were: 1) The management of Havana's urban watershed of the Almendares River; and 2) The efficacy of coastal ecosystem protection in the highly-impacted tourist area of Varadero in Matanzas Province.

The group visited and spoke with the technical director of the Río Almendares Parque Metropolitano project to learn of Havana's watershed management efforts. Participants learned that Havana's main water supply is beneath the city in subterranean aquifers. One of the main problems facing the city is contamination of these aquifers, thus the importance of management of the Almendares watershed. The project works to eliminate industrial, agricultural and residential wastewater from emptying into the river. The team of experts charged with directing this task provides an interesting model in that it mixes forestry, water and agricultural scientists with social workers and environmental educators. The team works directly with municipal authorities as well as with the dozens of neighborhoods that lie within the limits of the watershed.

One such neighborhood is called Pogolotti. In this highly dense urban neighborhood, which borders on a tributary of the Almendares River, the delegation was able to see several examples of what comprises the management of this watershed as a whole. To control the problem of raw sewage flowing into the tributary, engineers designed a constructed wetland, which treats the wastewater flow through the use of rocks, plants and natural filtration. It is the first of its kind in Cuba, and there are four other models currently under design in other neighborhoods in the watershed.

The team has also worked with local residents to clear out what was formally a 2-story dump behind a large apartment building, and to reforest the area using medicinal, shade and religiously-symbolic trees. It was a project that the community members themselves prioritized in a "community environmental diagnostic" done with the Almendares team. The local nurse told participants that "incidents of respiratory illness have plummeted" due to the reforestation efforts, which also helped to ameliorate the effects of an abandoned quarry nearby. The New York participants noted that there is a similar environmental health concern in NYC, as residents are trying to block construction of a 6-story water filtration plant to be built underground of one of the city parks.

A subset of the group visited Cuba's primary tourist beach at Varadero, 1 1/2 hours from Havana in Matanzas Province to learn of the pressures on both terrestrial and marine coastal ecosystems, of Cuba's large scale tourist development in this area. They delineate various development pressures, including: "mass hotel construction and tourist demand for water and water treatment, threats to watershed health from agricultural runoff, the lowering of water tables, and industrial coastal development such as oil production, power plants and chemical factories."

It was not possible to get a full grasp of all these complex issues, however the participants felt that, because of the fragility of some of the coastal ecosystems, combined with the massive rise in coastal tourism along the Varadero spit, the area is "clearly threatened by multiple types of development". They note that "Cuba's responses to these coastal development challenges are characterized by relatively advanced plans and regulations in the form of watershed restoration plans, a well structured Coastal Law, and the establishment of marine protected areas." However, they add, "all of these efforts are hampered by lack of funding for implementation and enforcement."

The researchers conclude that although mass tourist development is understandable given Cuba's economic challenges, they suggest placing a greater emphasis on proper design and management of tourist facilities, an increase in local community benefits from tourism along coastal waters, lower-intensity facilities that are marketed toward a different class of tourist, and lastly, that there be an "economic valuation" of natural tourist assets, and that a direct share of tourism profits be re-invested in the management of natural coastal resources.

These same researchers characterize Cuba's Coastal law and its increasing number of marine protected areas as "a bright spot on Cuba's environmental horizon." If continued funding, enforcement and political support is forthcoming, they believe that such efforts "are very promising". In particular, Cuba's marine protected areas, and Cuba's offshore reefs and marine habitat have been identified as among the highest-quality, most pristine in the Caribbean.

Many of the current findings of marine biodiversity as well as the conservation work to protect Cuba's coastal ecosystems, has come through Cuba's collaboration with Environmental Defense, a leading environmental NGO in the U.S. The cooperative work between ED and Cuba to achieve a sustainable development goal is one of many US-Cuba collaborations that are not only helping to protect Cuba's environment and natural resources for its people, but are also serving as templates and examples of the cooperation that is possible between our two peoples.

Local Development Colloquium:

Several members of the delegation also participated in a one-day colloquium on "Strategies to Localize Development", held by an organization within Cuba's Ministry of Science Technology and the Environment (CITMA). The organization's acronym is GEPROP, which stands for the Group for the Promotion of Prioritized Projects. They are dedicated to finding and disseminating throughout Cuba, the "best economic practices" of both a technological and a systemic nature. This was their second national colloquium. The first, held in a rural town in Ciego de Avila province in 2003, was also attended by a Global Exchange delegation.

Present at the colloquium were Cubans from CITMA at the municipal level, as well as other political and economic leaders, representing local populations from around the country. There was much debate and dialogue on what it means to "localize development", close economic loops at a territorial rather than a national level, and increase efficiency in economic supply chains. There was also discussion, of course, on what this means in the Cuban context of planned development and government-prioritized economic activity. Thus, the colloquium was an exchange of ideas on how to create a more sustainable, local economic order within Cuban socialism.

In attendance, too, was the vice-Minister of CITMA, who concluded the colloquium by stating that these issues, suggestions, priorities and new models discussed in both GEPROP colloquiums were being considered at the highest levels in Cuba, and that soon it would be a topic covered on the nightly Round Table hour news program, so that all Cubans could learn of these models and become involved in their creation. One participant comments that he was fascinated by the discussion, and from it, "felt like (he) saw first-hand Cuban democracy at work".

Two delegation participants gave short talks at the colloquium. One spoke on Peak Oil and Decline, and the need for systemic responses to the imminent world energy shortage, and another presentation focused on the US-Cuba trade possibilities of products and services in the "environmental marketplace".

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