Tropentag, September 11 - 13, 2024, Vienna "Explore opportunities... for managing natural resources and a better life for all"

Bases for the sustainable use of non-timber forest products in the La Platica community, Cuba

¹University of Granma, Forestry Engineering, Cuba
²University of Rostock, Agricultural and Environmental Faculty, Germany
³University of Granma, Plant Biotechnology Study Center, Cuba

Abstract

Bases for the sustainable use of non-timber forest products and disused plants in the Ecological Community La Platica, is the result of a research carried out in 2023 with periodic field reports since 2018 in the Turquino National Park, and completed in the framework of the DAAD UnderPlanet project, consortium of five universities led by the University of Rostock, in Germany. With the aim of diagnosing non-timber forest products and identifying principles for the management of non-timber forest products and disused plants. Completion of the report required a biometric study of non-timber forest species, an ethnobotanical study focusing on species with medicinal, food and aromatic uses, and an expert evaluation to determine management principles. The main findings include the following The way in which non-timber forest products are harvested and marketed in the La Platica Ecological Community is due to unsustainable historical practices, characterised by low participation of local people in financial benefits and decision-making, failure to resolve tensions caused by inhomogeneous development and a production system that does not respect the obligation to preserve the environmental basis for development. The possibility of carrying out new production, transformation and marketing, based on the rescue of the physical infrastructure and the training of human capital. The management principles were: use and management of natural resources, financial capacity, physical infrastructure, human capacity and socio-cultural and organisational aspects. Finally, the principles of management and the basis for the use of non-timber forest products in the Ecological Community of La Platica can be interpreted as a sustainable proposal, in which the natural capital must be used according to its potential and carrying capacity, and the economic and social capital must be adapted to the characteristics of the natural capital.

Keywords: Disused plants, environmental management, non-timber forest products

Contact Address: Yandro Jimenez, University of Granma, Forestry Engineering, Zenea 327 entre Lora y Figueredo, 85100 Bayamo, Cuba, e-mail: yjimenezb83gmail.com