Havana/A large fire reported in the Alejandro de Humboldt National Park, in the Guantánamo province, east of Cuba, devoured some 600 hectares of weeds and nearly 100 of forests, state media reported this Friday.
The fire, declared on June 27, has been controlled, although the Ranger Corps and other forces continue working to completely extinguish it this weekend, reported the delegate of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (Citma) in Guantánamo, Jesús Martín.
According to the official explained to the radio station Radio Guantánamo, the fire remains divided into three sources. Extinction efforts are advancing from north to northeast by eliminating combustible material, while the proximity of the Jaguaní River contributes to slowing its spread.
Authorities are investigating the causes of the fire in an area where high temperatures, thunderstorms and illegal mining are common.
In 2021, specialists attributed the largest forest fire recorded in the Alejandro de Humboldt National Park to illegal artisanal mining, which destroyed nearly 2,000 hectares. The area is home to some of the highest levels of biodiversity and endemism in the insular Caribbean.
The park, which extends across the territories of the provinces of Guantánamo and Holguín, was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2001.
The protected area covers 70,680 hectares, of which 68,430 are terrestrial and 2,250 marine, and is home to the largest hydrographic network in Cuba and the largest freshwater reservoir in the Caribbean.
The Cuban Ranger Corps ireported last May that between January and April, 111 forest fires were recorded, which damaged more than 3,174 hectares of natural and planted forests. Of them, 46 occurred in the province of Pinar del Río, in the extreme west of the country.
The institution warned that 96% of forest fires on the Island occur between January and May and that, although the prolongation of the dry period and weather conditions play a role, 90% of the fires are of human origin.
