Actions for the participative rehabilitation of the National Monument Forest of Stone “Isabel Rubio”

• Main Authors: Barbarita Mitjans Moreno, Joel Pacheco Escobar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Medellín 2017-09-01
• Series: Revista Facultad Nacional de Agronomía Medellín
• Online Access: https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/refame/article/view/66326
• ISSN: 0304-2847; 2248-7026

This work was carried out in the Monumento Nacional Bosque de Piedra "Isabel Rubio" in Guane municipality, Pinar del Río province, Cuba. It was aimed at proposing the participatory actions that contribute to mitigating the process of degradation in this ecosystem. Social information was collected for this purpose. The methods used were Participatory Rapid Diagnosis, Participative Action Research, as well as the Participative Scientific Observation. The techniques used for the collection of information were: semi-structured interview and participant observation. Significant results in this study include the following. It was found that among the causes that contribute to the degradation of the ecosystem are: logging of species of high commercial value, burning of the tropical karstic forests, construction of roads and insufficient knowledge local players have in relation to the patrimonial and natural values of the monument in the area under study. The consequences of these human actions were also identified and an action plan based on four lines of work (rehabilitation, training, integration, and promotion) was designed including real community participation in solving problems in relation to this heritage. It is concluded that the causes of the ecosystem deterioration are related to the anthropic action from negative positions, thus the participation of local players from a committed perspective for rehabilitation process is necessary.