The yellow, coin-sized soursop flowers must be picked in the afternoon to extract the pollen. Early the next morning, the remaining flowers will be pollinated by hand, a careful process that produces fruits weighing up to seven kilograms.
Onay Martínez explains these details at one of the stops on the agrotourism trail that runs through his farm, “Tierra Brava,” located in the municipality of Los Palacios, Pinar del Río.
Agrotourism is a financial solution to mobilize resources for biodiversity. The inititative is part of other actions planned within the framework of the Environmental Finance project, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme in Cuba in partnership with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment and the United Nations Environment Programme. Its implementation and scaling to other farms in the Cuban non-state sector, continues the global BIOFIN initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP), the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC), the Ministry of Finance and Prices (MFP), the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), and other global and territorial organizations, such as the government of Pinar del Río, also participate in this initiative.
Protecting biodiversity is also a matter of finance
Mechanisms such as these aim to make biodiversity conservation sustainable in the long term. When implemented by producers, they help harmonize environmental, social and economic objectives, benefiting both people and nature.
The project's actions enabled the design of environmental financial solutions in the Cuban non-state sector, such as a microfinance proposal for ecosystem-based adaptation and an agrotourism solution in two pilot sites in the province of Pinar del Río, implemented by UNEP and UNDP respectively.
The Environmental Finance project has also developed an Enabling Framework for the topic in Cuba, a document for the management of environmental finance as a contribution to the PNDES 2030 and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
The enabling framework is accompanied by a Roadmap and an Action Plan until 2030, which will facilitate its gradual implementation, and by a digital platform as a management tool that will facilitate decision-making.
With fruit flavor
The trail that visitors will follow includes other points of the farm, such as guava, mango, and banana plantations, two ponds, and a mini-industry. Along the route, several species of birds that nest in Tierra Brava can be observed, thanks to the sustainable land management that has been applied.
Onay usually does not collect all the sugar apples, but leaves some in the tree so that the birds can feed on them, in addition to not removing the plants that provide them with seeds and fibers to build their nests.
The Onay Martinez farm has the highest status in the Sustainable Land Management (SLM) program, which guarantees the management of production processes, fulfilling responsible actions with the natural environment.
One of the virtues of agrotourism is that it combines the rural lifestyle with practices that benefit both people and the ecosystem.
“Agrotourism is a source of financing from what we already have, which we had not identified as a marketable attraction,” says Martínez, who also acknowledges the support of UNDP throughout all these years.
These revenues are then reinvested in new actions aimed at conserving biodiversity and soil, which in turn leads to higher quality crops with higher nutritional value.
Iverilys Pérez, a professor at the University of Pinar del Río (UPR), emphasizes that this type of tourism brings new possibilities to rural areas and encourages the dissemination of good environmental management practices. “This is a sustainable way of promoting development at a local level,” she stressed.
The profits received by Tierra Brava would also be reflected in a greater scope of its social commitment. Part of its production is sold, at 30 percent below the usual price, to schools, daycare centers, a maternity home and a home for the elderly.
“We have a program to provide fruit to children with chronic non-communicable diseases. So agrotourism will help increase production so that we can incorporate more children into this program with more resources,” says Onay Martínez.
His wife, Yuleidis Batle, a commercial specialist at the farm, keeps track of what each patient consumes according to their health condition, and informs them every week about the available offers. On an electric tricycle provided by the Environmental Finance project, she transports her fresh agroecological products to her point of sale in the nearby town, as well as to schools and other social interest centers.
Agrotourism destination
The Cana palm is home to nests of the long-tailed hawk and the kestrel, endangered species. Farmers at the Los Mosegui demonstration park in the municipality of Viñales have decided to preserve these trees, even though their position may hinder tilling the land.
Along the path that runs through the three farms in the industrial estate, other birds can be seen, such as mockingbirds, bluebirds, and ciguapas, up to a total of around 45 types. The palm trees also act as a windbreak, a crucial function in the face of the impact of hurricanes, says producer Adel Cabrera.
They have also introduced the melipona bee, which is less selective and helps with pollination, rainwater harvesting, and crop association; techniques that improve yields and contribute to adapting to climate change.
These two farms, “Tierra Brava” and “Los Mosegui,” where agrotourism is established as a financial solution for the conservation of biodiversity, constitute the pilot sites where for the first time financial mechanisms for the mobilization of resources in the non-state sector have been incorporated, highlights Gloria Gómez, national coordinator of the BIOFIN initiative and the “Environmental Finance” project in Cuba.
The benefits of these initiatives also extend to the communities where they are located, which underlines the importance of local development. “The territory has played a fundamental role, not only the CITMA delegation, but also the municipal governments, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, the banking system… The participation of the territories in all these processes is decisive,” emphasizes the director.
For example, both experiences have managed to market directly to the population who, in the absence of intermediaries, acquire the products at a lower price.
The industrial estate also has a circle of interest that teaches planting and grafting techniques to children from the nearby rural school. “When they arrive, I become a teacher for them, because they even call me ‘teacher,’” says Cabrera’s wife, Yordania Llanes, who welcomes them every week. She is in charge of the accounting records of the enterprise, which can be computerized with the support of the project.
Jorge Freddy Ramírez, a professor at the UPR, explains that the activity promotes social responsibility and the commitment to safeguard rural traditions. In his opinion, these experiences represent another step towards the goal of turning Pinar del Río into an agrotourism destination.
Towards the end of the path, Adel Cabrera points to a mound of organic compost. “Nothing that is threshed is thrown away here, everything is preserved,” he says.
In a certain sense, the producer becomes a spokesperson for ecosystem-based adaptation when, at the meetings of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), he shares his learnings and encourages other producers to start sustainable land management (SLM), a process that constitutes a bastion for the identification, implementation and scaling up of good agricultural practices.
The “Los Mosegui” farm is located a few kilometers from the sea, on land that others might have written off as useless. With the boost from agrotourism experiences, Adel projects that he can invest in increasing the production of inputs and supply the nearby tourist center of Viñales, a national park and cultural heritage of humanity, generating employment solutions for the community, which in turn become a source of resources to protect the biodiversity of the area.
Note:
All joint programmes of the Joint SDG Fund are led by UN Resident Coordinators and implemented by the agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations development system. With sincere appreciation for the contributions from the European Union and Governments of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and our private sector funding partners, for a transformative movement towards achieving the SDGs by 2030.
