Parque Nacional Caguanes

Description

Caguanes National Park is located in the northern part of Yaguajay. It includes in-land areas, specifically the coastal plain Corralillo-Yaguajay and a marine-coastal area in the Bay of Buena Vista and several small keys called Cayos de Piedra (Stone Keys), in the archipelago Sabana-Camagüey.

Among the unique features of the National Park mention should be made of the karst heights in Cayos de Piedra, as its geology has favoured the formation and development of horizontal phreatic caves known generically as the Caguanes type, many of which can have up to five levels. The rocks of the karst area in Cayos de Piedra and the hills Guayarúes and Judas, located in the coastal area of Cuba, are classified within the geologic formation known as Güines from the Higher Mid-Miocene Superior in the upper part. These types of rocks are considered the second oldest in the archipelago Sabana-Camagüey and in the whole Cuban insular platform.

Key Caguanes presents the largest number of caves and caverns. Up to 35 grottos have been reported in an area of 114 ha, where the sum of all the galleries totals 15 Km. Therefore, the key is one of the sites with the largest number of caves per m² in Cuba. Furthermore, in the numerous caves and caverns in the area, many geological formations of karst dissolution, such as columns, helictites, natural bridges, sinkholes, vault openings, fungiform, stalactites, stalagmites, grikes (or calcite).

Associated to the submerged rocks, there are underwater geological formations like the so-called “hillocks.” These are underwater rock outcrops formed by the same type of limestone at Cayos de Piedra with many cavities where a diverse marine fauna finds shelter. So far, four different types of “hillocks” have been described in the National Park. These biotopes are the centre of the marine biodiversity in the area as they are shelter and feeding centres of the marine biodiversity, and in general, there are coral reefs associated to these forms that constitute the ideal natural substrate for their development.

For their characteristics and the natural environment they host animal and plant species of great significance, among them bats. Recent studies report 368 species of terrestrial plants, grouped in 361 genres of 88 present in low coastal plains which associate with cumulative and lacustrine-marshy forms. Fauna in the Park is currently of 460 species that belong to 359 genres and 190 families. Invertebrates are 271 species and vertebrates 189 species.

There are 38 aboriginal archaeological sites in the Park and abundant pictographs which credit the Park as one of the most important in the study of Pre-Columbian Cuban and Caribbean art. The first archaeological studies in the area date back from the 1940s, mostly in the keys to the east of Caibarien: in Aguada, Lucas, Fábrica and Salinas. This last one visited twice by the group Guamá in 1941, when two funeral caves were found.

Significant was the research carried out in the area of Punta de Caguanes in 1958, as part of the International Geophysics Year, organized by the commission of the same name. Among the most outstanding archaeological findings of the time were the aboriginal drawings found in the caves Colon, Ramos and Conchas. This was the first time this type of drawings were found in Cuba in the 20th century.

The expedition also found and excavated the residual Group II, at Limonar in Cayo Caguanes, which proves the existence of a small indigenous settlement. This was the first report in Cuba of pebbles and round stones or stone balls associated to burials. These findings have turned Caguanes into a new, and important archaeological zone.

Among the palaeontology evidences associated to aboriginal archaeological sites, the findings include remains of species such as: Megalocnus rodens (a large prehistoric sloth rodent), sloth (Parocnus brownii), hutia (Boromys torrei), shrew (Nesophontes micrus), hutia (Geocapromis pleitocenicus), hutia (Mesocapromis sp.), Crocodile (Crocodylus sp.), tree sloth (Neocnus gliriformis), eagle (Titanohierax sp.), almique (Solenodon cubanus), Turtle (Chelonia). Significant was the finding in 1986 of the giant owl (Ornimegalonyxoteroi sp.), considered at the time the scientific finding most valuable for palaeontology for its conservation conditions. All this findings certify the high historic-cultural value of the archaeological site.

The area is protected as a National Park by virtue of Agreement No 4262 (Annex 14), of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers dated December 18th, 2001. It is furthermore, a Zone under Special Regulations by virtue of Decree-Law 331 of 2015.

Justification de la Valeur Universelle Exceptionnelle

Caguanes National Park is a unique property in the Caribbean in which natural and cultural values converge. The property includes keys of karst rocks and a peninsula with the highest level of karst rocks in the region, where autochthonous communities already extinguished found refuge and left their mark in pictographs and archaeological residues.

Criterion (iii): Caguanes National Park is an outstanding testimony of autochthonous cultures in the Caribbean, representatives of extinguished civilization in the region. Several archaeological sites, particularly pictographs are proof of their existence.

Criterion (vii): The diversity of spaces and forms generated in the property by the predominant karst terrain have propitiated the formation of caves and other highly aesthetic geological formations, a relevant landscape in which the keys of karst origin, the mangrove and the sea create a diversity of exceptional beautiful views.

Criterion (viii): The property is a unique geological site of outstanding geomorphic and physiographic features in which karst is a protagonist because of the variety and number of formations and cave systems it generates. Furthermore, in association with the underwater relief, there are very important ecological underwater geo-formations known as “hillocks.”

Criterion (x): Caguanes National Park is the habitat of a variety of vegetables and animals, 24 of which are endemic. One of the most outstanding features of the protected area’s vegetation is the small population of a variety of palm known as Jata palm (Copernicia hospita) habitat of a bat species. Geological peculiarities, particularly the caves, favour the existence of multiple refuges for bats, being the area the zone with larger number of caves occupied by bats in the whole country with a population that includes all genres of Cuban bats with more than 20 species.

Déclarations d’authenticité et/ou d’intégrité

Since the property was declared a National Park for its protection, its management ensures the conservation of all archaeological sites, and their maintenance in an authentic manner to which difficult accessibility to the keys has also contributed. Marking the limits of the property ensures the presence of all the elements on which its outstanding universal value lies, the declaration as a National Park with both marine and earth areas on the major island as well as a group of keys.

Comparaison avec d’autres biens similaires

Because of its karst formations, the site can be compared to the National Park Cat Ba in Viet Nam, and the rocks formations in the Harbour Cat Ba, already inscribed in UNESCO World Heritage List. It is comparable also to the National Park Haitises within Samaná Harbour in the Dominican Republic. This park is a unique example of tropical karst in knolls (limestone relief), characteristic of these climate zones on Earth and treasures in its underground caves one of the most important fresh water reservoirs in the island Saint Domingo of an incalculable biologic and economic importance for the Dominican Republic.

However, the outstanding universal value of the Caguanes National Park not only takes into account the natural elements: the site could be the second mixed site of the Caribbean to be inscribed in UNESCO World heritage List.