958. With Economic Damages Due to Climate Change, Cuba Calls for a Conference

Hurricane Sandy devastated Santiago de Cuba

By Xinhua, November 23. 2012

HAVANA -- Some 84 percent of the total 413 Cuban beaches are eroding because of climate change and inadequate development, experts from the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) said Friday.

The process of erosion "largely responds to the rising of sea level and to the inadequate actions practiced by people for many years," said Jose Luis Juanes, director of the NIO's Department of Coastal Processes.  The actions include sand mining, building of various works over the dunes, and incorrect locations of channels, jetties, piers and docks.

Juanes said 35 beaches of the Caribbean island country are covered by a national monitoring network detecting "morphological variations and other changes that may occur in these ecosystems, due to the effect of climate change."

Cuba is currently developing a macro project to forecast and search measures before sea flooding and erosion in coastal areas for 2050-2100.

Hurricane Sandy, which hit eastern Cuba on Oct. 25, transformed the coast into a rocky shoreline.

by Xinhua, November 24, 2012

HAVANA-- Cuba will host an international conference next May to discuss the effects of hurricane Sandy and issues related to climate change, the official news agency Prensa Latina said on Saturday.

The Sixth International Conference on the Comprehensive Management of Coastal Areas will be held next May in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, which was most devastated by Sandy late last month, said the report, quoting Dr. Ofelia Perez, director of the Center for Multidisciplinary Studies on Coastal Areas (Cemzoc) of the University of Oriente.

The conference will be "a bright opportunity to study the complex circumstances associated to the course of the devastating cyclone in the region," said Perez.

He added that the main issue to be discussed during the meeting will be the integration for the sustainability of coastal ecosystems against climate change.

Perez said that experts from Mexico, Venezuela, Canada, Colombia, Uruguay, Spain, France and Brazil have expressed their interest in attending the conference, which will also cover social, health and environment studies linked to global warming.

Hurricane Sandy, which was considered "historic" by the local meteorologists, hit eastern Cuba on Oct. 25, devastating the city of Santiago de Cuba and leaving 11 people dead.

Over 130,000 houses collapsed in the hurricane disaster, which also caused economic losses of more than 100 million U.S. dollars for the island nation.