By Andrew Farncombe and Rafael Betancourt

Abstract

The revitalization of the Parque Metropolitano de La Habana (PMH) is one of several urban restoration projects under way in Havana, alongside the conservation of historic Old Havana, the architectural restoration of Havana's famous ocean promenade "el Malecón," and the clean up of the Havana Bay. The PMH project is focused on the degraded lower watershed of the highly polluted Rio Almendares, the largest urban river in the capital city. The project aims to develop an ecologically sustainable and socially accessible park in the centre of the city. It is promoting the continued coexistence of a patchwork of mixed uses, from natural areas and recreational spaces to agricultural lands, quarries, industries and population settlements. The Canadian Urban Institute (CUI), with the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), has been supporting the project since 1995 through technical assistance and know-how transfer to the Parque Metropolitano de La Habana, an agency of the Province of the City of Havana.

It is both an environmental and a governance project. It also has strong social development elements. As an environmental project, it is implementing a strategy to deal with issues such as deforestation, unrestrained domestic and industrial dumping, and an overall lack of environment management that is contributing to the degradation of the river and the destruction of flora and fauna. As a governance project, it is innovating new approaches to community involvement in local decision-making and action. A significant community-based participation process is providing opportunities for residents to shape the development strategy and plan for the park, and to form partnerships for its implementation. Community "environmental working groups" are leading this grassroots participation in environmental diagnosis, planning and action. In terms of a social development, the project is assisting some of Havana's poorest communities to organize themselves and to build new partnerships with local authorities to tackle problems related to sanitation, solid waste management and accessible and safe recreational space.

The project is a pioneering initiative, given that it is the first community-based strategic planning process undertaken in the country. It is serving as a model for other local authorities across Cuba on approaches to sustainable development, environmental protection, community involvement in the local governance process and the self-sustainability of local government authorities.

Background

The Parque Metropolitano de La Habana (PMH), a local authority under the Province of the City of Havana, has jurisdiction over a 700-hectare expanse of land in the heart of the City of Havana that roughly corresponds to the lower watershed of the Rio Almendares. It is one of five major parks along the river's basin. As such, it is an intrinsic part of the capital city's greenbelt system. Beginning at its mouth at the coast, the Park follows the river for 9 kilometres as it winds its way through urban neighbourhoods, industrial complexes, public green spaces and agricultural lands that reflect the city's diversity and its history. The Rio Almendares has been, and continues to be, a "working river." Today, it reveals the contamination that characterizes the urban watercourses in so many of the world's large cities.

The objectives of the project are to reverse deforestation; create opportunities for urban agriculture; clean up the territory, the river and industrial polluters; explore alternative technologies for sewage treatment; introduce integrated solid waste management practices; restore and create housing; improve recreational facilities and services; improve accessibility to the park; promote economic self-sufficiency and introduce participatory and environmental education processes. These objectives have been integrally defined through a participatory strategic planning process. It began with environmental diagnosis, a mechanism through which those involved got to define the specific problemsand their interrelations, and brainstorm potential solutions. A major emphasis has been placed on promoting good governance practices at the local level, such as through the creation of community-based and inter-agency partnerships for implementation.

The project's primary international patron is Canada. With funding from the Canadian Partnership Branch (Membership and Specialized Organizations Program) of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI) has been partnered since 1995 with the Province of the City of Havana through the Parque Metropolitano de La Habana (PMH) to provide technical assistance, know-how transfer and financial support to the project. Based in Toronto (Canada), the CUI is a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of life in urban areas in Canada and internationally. The Institute has extensive international experience in the design, management, implementation, and evaluation of local government capacity development programs in Asia, the Americas and Central and Eastern Europe. The CUI cooperation began with the formulation of a participatory strategic plan for the PMH. Over the past six years, it has also been directed towards building the capacity of the PMH organization and its staff in project management, financial control, participatory planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, environmental education and various technical areas related to environmental remediation. Capacity development has also been directed towards civil society, to build an overall enabling environment for participation in local governance and development processes.

Building a Partnership Approach to Sustainable Urban Development

Acknowledgement is due to the late Jesus Montané, Deputy of the National Assembly and advisor to Cuban President Fidel Castro, whose dream it was to see the Metropolitan Park returned to a green oasis in the middle of the capital city - a park accessible to citizens of the city and visitors alike who could come there to find solitude and a connection to nature in the midst of the stresses of urban life. It was through his inspiration and championship back in the mid-1990s that a number of committed individuals from various organizations came together to make it all happen - the Ministry for Foreign Investment and International Cooperation (MINVEC), the Province of the City of Havana, the leadership of the PMH, the Grupo Para el Desarollo Integral de La Capital (GDIC), Havana's polytechnic university IPSJAE and a visiting Cuban-American professor from the University of Massachusetts at Boston. With the support of CIDA and the strong encouragement of then Ambassador of Canada to Cuba Mark Entwistle, the CUI was able to provide a helping hand.

At the beginning of the project, there existed a master plan for the creation of the metropolitan park, but no strategy to implement the plan. There was also a lack of mechanisms to involve communities, non-government organizations and other government agencies in the formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the plan. Insufficient capacities within the PMH organization and its management and technical teams were an obstacle to creation of the metropolitan park. It was determined that a strategy was needed to establish the main actions required to enable the Park in the areas of reforestation, environmental restoration, infrastructure investments and recreation.

Phase I of the project began in 1995 and ran until 1998. During this period, the project innovated a unique Cuban approach to strategic planning that involved communities at all levels in formulating a strategy for the revitalization of the park. This was accomplished through strengthening the capacity of the PMH Project Team to undertake the strategic planning process and implement key pilot projects in four of Havana's largest and most populous municipalities (which are included within the park's boundaries). The main achievements of the project during its first three years were the following:

• completed a strategic plan for the revitalization of the Parque Metropolitano de La Habana, with a complementary economic plan and five-year action plans in 6 sectoral areas;
• delivered training and capability programs to the Park team and participating Cuban NGOs in key technical areas related to strategic urban management, environmental planning, and public participation;
• involved over 15 NGOs and government agencies and engaged over 500 stakeholders in the strategic planning process and the implementation of pilot projects;
• implemented 5 pilot projects in urban agriculture, urban reforestation, natural systems for sewage treatment, environmental education and solid waste management;
• leveraged project implementation activities by attracting US$200,000 from other foreign agencies for the implementation of pilot projects;
• established a project strategic committee system that is integrated into governance structures; and
• coordinated development activities in the Park with 8 other international development organizations and developed sustainable linkages with Canadian local authorities and professionals.

Phase II of the project (1998-2001) has been focused on the implementation of key elements of the strategy for the revitalization of the Parque Metropolitano, which was formulated with Canadian technical cooperation during the first phase. One of the issues that became most evident during the strategy development process was the complexity of the task at hand. This is especially so given the size of the territory and the diversity of uses within it, the degree of environmental contamination, and the very unique and challenging economic situation which Cuba finds itself in. The second phase has been addressing these challenges in several ways:

• Expanding the "partnerships for development" approach to bring about new collaborative relationships for implementing the strategy. These include joint action planning with all 9 Popular Councils (community level local authorities), four municipal governments, and several industries located in the park.
• Implementing projects with a strong "demonstration" effect. This includes the implementation of two pilot community-based partnerships with the popular councils of Pogolotti and La Ceiba, for the implementation of a solid waste management, reforestation and other initiatives.
• Enhancing the planning and development process through the incorporation of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies as a tool for coordinating the task at hand.
• Promoting new revenue-raising mechanisms and economic self-sufficiency of the park authority through the establishment of an incubator for PMH enterprise units - this will permit the PMH to run enterprise units that allow it to fund its own clean-up effort and reduce its reliance on senior government transfers and foreign assistance.
• Documenting the learning experiences of the project through case studies, manuals and workshops and other means. The PMH project is now serving as a model for Cuba in strategic urban management and the lessons learned are being disseminated to other local government units across the country.

Planting the Seed of A Dream

CUI's cooperation was the "seed" project that has helped the dream of Jesus Montané grow into a unique multi-agency effort on the Cuba side, as well as a multi-donor cooperation effort on the international front. Two other Canadian organizations are active in the project: Oxfam Canada is working with the PMH in the area of urban agriculture and the Evergreen Foundation in urban forestry. More recently, international organizations from Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, France and Germany have supported the implementation of various pilot projects that are helping the PMH to move forward in the implementation of its strategic plan.

Key participating organizations and institutions to date have included: In Cuba:

• Province of the City of Havana (key partner organization)
• Havana Metropolitan Park (implementing partner organization)
• Group for the Integrated Development of the Capital (secondary partner)
• 4 municipalities (Plaza, Playa, Mariana and Cerro)
• 8 popular councils (El Carmelo, La Ceiba, Puentes Grandes, Pogolotti, Palatino, Colon, Sierra and Miramar)
• University of Havana and the Havana Technical University (IPSJAE)
• Cuban NGOs (Martin Luther King Memorial Centre, Centre for European Studies, Foundation of Nature and Humanity, Cuban Council of Churches, Centre for Information on and the Study of Inter-American Relations).

From Canada:

• Oxfam Canada
• Evergreen Foundation
• Cities of Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Kitchener
• National Capital Commission
• Task Force to Bring Back the Don River (Toronto)
• Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
• Ryerson Polytechnic University
• Private sector firms (Tarandus Associates Ltd., Hough Woodland Naylor Dance, Tingle and Associates, Procter and Redfern).

Other international organizations:

• Council of Andalucia (Spain)
• Terranouva (Italy)
• Oxfam Belgium
• Centro Regionale d'Intervento per la Cooperazione (CRIC) (Italy)
• Cooperazione per lo Sviluppo dei Paesi Emergenti (COSPE) (Italy)
• HIVOS (Netherlands)
• Junta de Andalucia (Spain)
• Association Cuba Coopération (France)
• Boll Foundation (Germany).

A Poor Havana Neighbourhood Takes Bold Steps to Clean Up Its Backyard

The community of Pogolotti, one of the target pilot neighbourhoods within the PMH, is illustrative of the approach taken by the project to integrate social development objectives within environment management initiatives.

Pogolotti is a community with a rich history. A predominantly black and mostly poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Havana, it is an example of the earliest government-subsidized, low-income housing built in Cuba. This working-class community is also rich in Afro-Cuban folklore and religion, as well as an urban culture that reflects the idiosyncrasy and local image of its residents. Today, Pogolotti is working to clean up and reforest its local environment. It is home to a community-based project of solid-waste management and reforestation, being undertaken within the framework of this project.

At the turn of the century, before returning to fight in Cuba's War of Independence against Spain, a restless congressman who had worked as a tobacco roller in Key West captured in all its magnitude the drama of poor families living in Havana's urban slums. He proposed a bill to build low-income housing and sell it to working families at subsidized prices. The houses were built on farmland in the semi-rural suburbs of Marianao owned by Dino Pogolotti, an Italian merchant turned real estate broker who migrated in his youth to New York and later to Havana. Between 1910 and 1913, 950 two-bedroom, 48 square-metre dwellings were built and raffled among working families of Havana's inner city.

Yet, as with so many developments of its kind, the community and its housing suffered from serious flaws in physical, urban and architectural planning. It lacked essential public services and green areas and it was quickly overwhelmed by thousands of indigents who built an adjacent shantytown without running water, sewers or electricity. This was the case of "Isla del Polvo," a shantytown within Pogolotti that was razed after the 1959 Revolution and replaced with multi-family dwellings where its residents were moved.

Despite notable socio-economic and cultural progress in these last 40 years, Pogolotti is still one of Havana's poorest neighbourhoods. A decade of economic crisis only heightened its problems, evidenced by poor housing, pot-holed streets and uncollected garbage. And it was precisely the problem of unsanitary conditions, along with lack of recreational facilities, that the residents identified as their chief concern at public meetings and in surveys conducted by the PMH Technical Team through the Canadian-sponsored project.

One of the key objectives of the park project is to implement pilot initiatives in those neighbourhoods most in need, and to engage stakeholders in the planning, action and education processes. As a result, the project engaged the established institutions and natural leaders of the Pogolotti neighbourhood. The participatory process was undertaken through the community, organized into Environmental Groups at the Popular Council (district) level. These now work together with the Park Team in identifying the environmental problems in their territory, in developing intervention plans and in executing them.

The Team conducted interviews and surveys in the seven neighbourhoods of the Pogolotti district, held brainstorming sessions with the Environmental Group and conducted a community workshop to determine the areas most affected and best suited for a cleanup and recycling program. This allowed them to define the main goals and plan of action for a project of solid waste collection, classification and recycling in two neighbourhoods of the Pogolotti district. One neighbourhood is home to traditional "Pogolottenses" inhabiting single-family dwellings while the other is home to more recent arrivals and former residents of "Isla del Polvo", now housed in four apartment buildings.

The project began in earnest with 70 households involved in its first phase. It was subsequently expanded to another 80 families. The results so far are encouraging. Each family separates its garbage into organic and inorganic waste and places each in separate plastic containers provided by the program. Two "cartdrivers," one in each ward, collect the trash and take the organic waste to the "composters." These we originally rustic piles, later replaced by 20 plastic composters donated by an Ontario (Canada) private company. Compost is now being actively produced and used in reforesting and gardening initiatives. The inorganic waste is classified for recycling into glass, cardboard, aluminum and plastic.

In addition, the community collectively cleaned up six micro garbage dumps that had become virtual environmental and health hazards, and proceeded to recover the areas for different uses, mostly green space through reforestation. One large dump next to one of the buildings was eliminated and in its place the community is planted a tropical forest.

Other projects in progress in Pogolotti include developing a nursery as an input to the reforestation initiatives; reforesting the Pogolotti Holy Forest, an ancestral forest much valued by Afro-Cuban folklore; a natural systems sewage treatment project, involving the construction of a wetland to treat the human residuals of a population of 500 people; and an environmental education initiative for school children which allows them to participate in community clean-up..

Big Obstacles But Not Insurmountable Barriers:
Reflections on Lessons Learned

At the outset, the program for the revitalization of the PMH had its skeptics. We didn't let their views prevent us from moving toward the dream, but we certainly listened and adapted. There were some people who said that remediation of the huge environmental problems facing the watershed of the Almendares River could never be tackled in the context of limited resources in Cuba during the Special Period - the term Cubans use to describe the difficult economic situation since 1991 that resulted from the collapse of trade linkages with the former socialist economies of Central and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, they said that the experiences of Canada -- with an economic, political and social system very different from Cuba - could be of little relevance to the Cuban context. Big obstacles, we replied, but not insurmountable barriers. Such challenges require innovation and culturally sensitive approaches to collaboration. That is what we did and continue to do today.

First, the program set out to harness those resources that cannot be measured in pesos or dollars - the community. Informed by best practices in strategic, participatory planning from Canada, the program innovated a unique Cuban approach to strategic planning that involved communities at all levels in formulating a strategy for the revitalization of the park. Out of this process grew a number of partnerships that are now seeing municipalities, popular councils, industries, Cuban NGOs and local communities actively involved in the implementation of various initiatives. These range from solid waste management to reforestation, urban agriculture, sewage treatment, clean-up campaigns, environmental education and recreation.

Second, we set out to build awareness on the international stage of the program and to find new forms of international collaboration. This has seen great success. Over the past few years, implementation of various components of the strategy is being supported by Canadian organizations other than the CUI (such as Oxfam Canada and the Evergreen Foundation), as well as agencies from various countries in Europe.

Third, the project has been examining the feasibility of new institutional arrangements to raise revenues to fund the environmental remediation and revitalization processes. Preliminary approval has been given by senior government of a proposal to grant the PMH certain powers as a "public enterprise." Among other things, this would provide it with an ability to raise its own revenues through collecting user fees on the operation of certain facilities within the park, move towards economic self-sufficiency and obtain own-source revenues to fund the long-term revitalization process.

Fourth, in designing the approach to capacity development, we ensured that all activities were based on the concept of shared, two-way learning. Whether through Cubans participating in study tours in Canada to see first-hand how local authorities in another country are tackling similar environmental problems, or through Canadian professionals providing technical advice in Cuba to PMH team members, the emphasis has always been on information sharing and mutual learning. Never did we take an approach of "prescription" of solutions. Through face-to-face exchange of professionals, the collaboration has succeeded in exposing both Canadians and Cubans to alternative ways of doing things. On the Canadian side, this has been possible through the CUI's approach to involving urban professionals from across the country in the program, whether from local government, universities, NGOs or the private sector.

Fifth, to realize the dream requires a long-term commitment. The process of restoring a degraded watershed and a polluted river does not happen over night. It is a massive undertaking that requires incremental but sustained steps towards the achievement of a long-term, integrated strategy. It also requires the commitment and coordination of actors and agencies in all sectors of society. And in the case of Cuba, which continues to face the dual challenges of strengthening its economy while bringing about sustainable development, the realization of the goal will require an ongoing infusion of technical and financial support from the international community.

From the River to the Bay: Replicating What We Learned

Beginning in 2001, the CUI with the continued support of CIDA, will commence a new phase of activities in Havana that will involve replicating the approaches to community-based environmental management and social development innovated within the PMH to another of Havana's priority revitalization projects -- the clean up of the polluted Havana Bay and its harbour front. Through this new initiative, Canada is extending its commitment to partnerships with Cuba in promoting good urban governance and sustainable urban development.

Andrew Farncombe, an urban planner living in Toronto, is the Canadian Urban Institute's International Programs Manager. Rafael Betancourt, an economist living in Havana, is the CUI's Representative in Cuba.