Castro The Conservationist?

Recently, National Geographic published an article by Stefan Lovgren entitled 'Castro the Conservationist? By Default or Design, Cuba Largely Pristine'. While I am uncertain of the specifics concerning communism and conservation, the general idea that slower economic growth causes less environmental degradation is an interesting predicament. The ecologist in me tends to think that current economic models for capitalism are failing to preserve finite resources. Despite the incredible force of market power, the markets are incapable of success with inaccurately valued finite resources. With this in mind, free markets have incredible capabilities--far more than communist systems--that can also preserve natural resources if set up to do so.

David Ricardo noted a deficiency with respect to valuing nature, “where she is munificently beneficent she always works gratis.” Markets must pay back nature if there is ever to be hope of obtaining a soft landing for the economic transition towards sustainability. The transition towards sustainable development will soften growth in the economy. This seems necessary if the value of natural resources and commidities is increased. However, the benefits for certain sectors of the economy focussed on sustainable energy will likely experience exponential growth. Also, the negative externalities of wasteful consumption (i.e. air pollution and asthma) will decrease.

I am very interested in what others think of sustainable development and global markets. Please send me your thoughts or feel free to post a comment. Here are some excerpts from the article:

Will Cuban President Fidel Castro be remembered primarily as a man of the people, an authoritarian tyrant—or a conservationist?
...

Some experts say his environmental policies may be among his greatest achievements.

Though Cuba is economically destitute, it has the richest biodiversity in the Caribbean. Resorts blanket many of its neighbors, but Cuba remains largely undeveloped, with large tracts of untouched rain forest and unspoiled reefs (map of Cuba). The country has signed numerous international conservation treaties and set aside vast areas of land for government protection. But others say Cuba's economic underdevelopment has played just as large a role.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union—its main financial benefactor—Cuba has had to rely mostly on its own limited resources. It has embraced organic farming and low-energy agriculture because it can't afford to do anything else. And once Castro is gone, the experts say, a boom in tourism and foreign investment could destroy Cuba's pristine landscapes.

"I think the Cuban government can take a substantial amount of credit for landscape, flora, and fauna preservation," said Jennifer Gebelein, a professor at Florida International University in Miami who studies environmental issues in Cuba.

More than 20 percent of Cuba's land is under some form of government protection. The island's wetlands have been largely shielded from pesticide runoff that has destroyed similar areas in other countries. And since Castro seized power in 1959, logging has slowed significantly. Forest cover has increased from 14 percent in 1956 to about 21 percent today.

In addition, the more than 4,000 smaller islands surrounding the main island are important refuges for endangered species. The coastline and mangrove archipelagos are breeding grounds for some 750 species of fish and 3,000 other marine organisms.

Because Cuba's tourist industry has not developed quickly in regard to reef exploitation, the reefs have been spared the fate of Florida's reefs, for example," Gebelein said. At about 1.5 million acres (600,000 hectares), the Ciénaga de Zapata Biosphere Reserve is Cuba's largest protected area and has been designated a "Wetland of International Importance" by the Ramsas Convention on Wetlands in 1971. "The Zapata Swamp is the Caribbean's largest and most important wetland," said Jim Barborak, who is based in San Pedro, Costa Rica, and heads the protected areas and conservation corridors program for Conservation International.

Originally, Cuba was in the Pacific Ocean, not the Caribbean Sea. Continental drift slowly brought the island into the Caribbean some 100 million years ago, and an astonishing variety of life emerged.

"Cuba has tremendous biological diversity," Barborak said. "The levels of plant endemism—unique species limited to Cuba—is particularly high, especially in highland ecosystems in eastern Cuba." More than half of Cuba's plants and animals, and more than 80 percent of its reptiles and amphibians, are unique to the island.

Endemic birds include the Cuban trogon, the Cuban tody, and the Cuban pygmy owl. The world's smallest bird, the bee hummingbird—which weighs less than a U.S. penny—is found there. "Important populations of many North American migratory birds, whose declining populations require international action to conserve both breeding and wintering grounds, spend much of the year in Cuba," Barborak said.

Cuba is only one of two nations with a primitive mammal known as a solenodon, a foot-long (0.3-meter-long) shrewlike creature.

The island also has a great diversity of giant lizards, crocodiles, and tortoises.

A key player in Cuba's green movement has been Guillermo García Frías, one of five original "comandantes" of the 1959 Cuban revolution. A nature lover with strong ties to Castro, García has pushed for a strong environmental ethic for a generation of scientists and government officials. "Comandante García's enthusiasm for nature conservation has been critical to the successful development of a conservation infrastructure in Cuba," said Mary Pearl, president of the Wildlife Trust in New York City.

Cubans are leaders in biological research, with thousands of graduates from the country's ten universities and institutes devoted to work in ecology. "The country has the best intellectual infrastructure for wildlife conservation in the Caribbean," Pearl said.