Eco-briefs
CUBA: More Trees in Havana

HAVANA, Feb 1 (Tierramérica).- The Cuban capital benefited in 2009 from the planting of more than 33,000 trees. But government officials and ecologists point to the low survival rate of the new trees.

Isabel Russó, head of the State Forest Service in Havana, said the city of 2.2 million people has about 150,000 trees and that the percentage of forest area increased from 2.4 percent in 1994 to 8.6 currently. However, she noted that tree survival is low due to "social indiscipline," but did not go into detail.

In the opinion of ecologist Isabel Díaz, the survival rate is affected by the lack of monitoring.

"Institutions are often limited to planting the tree, but lack the resources to protect them with enclosures, or to water them with the frequency needed to get past the stress of being transplanted," she told Tierramérica.