Cuba Protects Open-Pit Mining Areas

Cuba Protects Open-Pit Mining AreasHavana, Aug 19. – Cuba has implemented an integral rehabilitation program in areas dedicated to open-pit mining to protect the environment.

The initiative will allow for the recuperation of some 120 hectares of land annually, stated Carlos Alberto Diaz, national forest director of the Ministry of Agriculture.

The process is slow and difficult, because the soil must first be reconditioned by using heavy machinery in places where minerals have been mined, the official said.

Diaz told the National News Agency that after draining the soil, depositing organic matter, and planting pines and casuarinas trees, follow-up is done by cleaning, irrigating, trimming and pruning each tree.

Once the process of cultivating land has started, birds will appear and with them the excretions that provide seeds and create a natural ecological process benefiting the environment, the official noted.

Internationally, the rehabilitation of open-pit mines is a practice, and in Cuba a law was passed to guarantee fair and equitable correspondence between production plans and the reforestation of mining areas.(Prensa Latina)