Sistema Arrefical del Caribe Cubano

Description

In the studies carried out in the planning for the first Plan of the National System of Protected Areas of Cuba 2003-2008 (SNAP by its name in Spanish) (Various authors, 2003), a group of areas were deemed to be of outstanding universal value and therefore, following this rationale, the Convention Guidelines, its strategy and interest in representativeness as well as the balance of properties inscribed in the World Heritage List, the proposal to include the Reef System of the Cuban Caribbean is submitted.

The property includes 10 components or sites located in the South of the Cuban archipelago. In his second trip to the New World in 1494, after landing in Cabo Cruz (Cape Cruz) coming from Jamaica on the 14th of May, Christopher Columbus wrote in his diary he had sailed the contour of the South coast until the 16th of May when he faced difficulties to continue because of the narrow shallow canals in between the multiple keys they had found sailing a coast that was turning to the direction of Sunset.

The Admiral named this group of small islands the Jardín de la Reina (Queen’s Garden) (PNJR) because of its great beauty. While navigating in the labyrinth formed by the keys, the Spanish sailors learned a fishing method of the natives, who used remoras with a twine tied at the tail to capture other fish and marine turtles.

Documents from the conquest and colonization mention the presence of Pánfilo de Narváez in Cayos de la Leña (a group of keys) in the north of Guanahacabibes peninsula, from where he launched attacks to subject the natives, called Guanahatabeyes. Diego Velázquez turned the lands conquered in the western territories into farms and initiated colonization. The area of Guanahacabibes (PNG) became an important area in the conquest of America. Another characteristic apart from the fact that it was used as a springboard or stepping stone the “mainland” is related to the history of privateers and pirates. This is present in the landscape as well as in local legends and oral traditions.

Justification de la Valeur Universelle Exceptionnelle

The Reef System of the Cuban Caribbean (SACC by its name in Spanish) treasures a large variety of marine and coastal ecosystems interconnected through currents and ecological processes that facilitate its high productivity and diversity as well as abundance of species among which are well preserved coral reefs populations, abundant populations of big fish (groupers, porgy, parrotfish, sharks and others), marine mammals (manatee and cetaceans) and marine turtles. The site is 791 km long if measured in a straight line, but 1 482 km if the borders of the insular platform and the group of underwater mountains (seamounts) are measured. The total area of the site is 5238 km2, equivalent to 44,5 % of the 11730 km2 of what is described as the Reef Ecosystem of the Cuban Caribbean (EACC by its name in Spanish), in the limit between the two zones on the wide platform in the south of Cuba together with the narrow sector of platform that connects both, also including seamounts nearby sommer coral reefs and mesophotic coral reefs found on the tops of seamounts from the surface to 700 meters deep.

Then series of the SACC include protected marine areas important for the nation and for the region, significant for their area or extension, diversity of natural attributes of value and conservation conditions. There are systems of shallow coastal marine terraces, sand dunes (fossils and active), coral keys and swampy keys (of mangroves), platform coral reefs (with and without crests) and mesophotic reefs with al almost continuous distribution. There are also large areas of marine grasses (174 516 ha, equivalent to 72% of the ecosystem) with presence of the four phanerogam marine species (seed plants) in the Caribbean and more than 235 species of macroalgae, as well as extremely beautiful sandy beaches such as the ones of keys Campos and Rosario, Punta Francés and Key Largo. Includes sites representative of quaternary superficial processes such as: the evolution of accumulative and biogenic keys, beaches of calcareous and Aeolian sands, as well as elements representatives of ancient geologic evolution (the oldest in the Caribbean) such as submarine shoals and mountains that could be dozens to even thousands of metres deep at the Bancos de San Antonio and Jagua. The geographic location and their relation with ocean currents allow a dispersion of larvae and favour a migratory corridor for threatened marine species the conservation of which is a priority.

Criterion (vii): Both Guanahacabibes (PNJR) and Jardines de la Reina (PNJR) offer underwater marine landscapes of a great beauty, particularly the platform reefs, abundant populations of big fish, mega-fauna and other outstanding species that are threatened, making them a unique attraction for diving. The system of marine caves, vertical walls and the diversity and abundance of species have turned.

Guanahacabibes (PNG) into a site Hope Spot declared by Mission Blue as world exclusive attraction for diving and Jardines de la Reina (PNJR) has been granted the Blue Park standard in the golden category by the World Marine Conservation Centre.

Criterion (viii): Guanahacabibes is a landscape of three emerged marine terraces and three submerged terraces; Jardines de la Reina is a landscape of on level of terrace emerged and three submarine levels, which, together with mangroves, corals, existing underwater planing surfaces, sandy semi-fossils dunes and other elements. In Jardines de la Reina, which may include a possible reef barrier in the insular Caribbean, there are important and unique coral formations, such as the Ana María Back Reef Slopes and the Atoll-like reef structures (Estrada et.al. 2023), as well as other geomorphological underwater formations (hills, river beds), all of them characteristic of the last stage of the de Holocene-Pleistocene evolution of tropical and Caribbean islands under ascending-descending conditions as well as emersion-submersion with little terrigenous influence or pollution. Banco de Jagua is representative of a Seamounts group that could perhaps become an active submarine Rift (Sprague, 2019).

Criterion (ix): Both Guanahacabibes (PNG) and Jardines de la Reina (PNJR) are extremely important for the maintenance of the regional connectivity processes. Four out of the eleven spawning sites for threatened snapper and grouper in the Cuban-Caribbean Reef System (SACC), key for the fishing sustainability in Cuba and the Caribbean are located in the sites and contain critical habitats for the reproduction of threatened migrant species. The National Park Jardines de la Reina is one of the nesting sites of the hawksbill turtle, one of the most outstanding species in the Caribbean and together with the Guanahacabibes National Park preserves one of the most important nesting places of the green turtle and the loggerhead turtle in Cuba. There is proof of the strong genetic connectivity between the Guanahacabibes reefs and the reefs in the rest of the region. Their elongated, extended and cluster shape contributes to their resilience against climate change and the slow stochastic processes associated.

Criterion (x): The coral reefs ecosystems in the two National Parks are among the best preserved in the Caribbean, and classify among the 50 more resilient to climate change in the world. The abundance and health of herbivores like the long thorn black urchin (Diadema antillarum), the density of snappers, groupers and sharks, and the existence of one of the few healthy populations of species of commercial interest that are highly endangered in the world, such as the Epinephelus striatus (critically in danger of extinction) and the Epinephelus itajara (vulnerable), turn these two national parks into sites unique for marine conservation at the regional and global levels. Both parks also preserve one of the best preserved populations of sharks in the Caribbean.

Déclarations d’authenticité et/ou d’intégrité

The Cuban-Caribbean Reef System (SACC) constitutes a comprehensive reef system on the border of the two major underwater platforms of Cuba and the Caribbean, well preserved and connected through nesting sites, larvae dispersion, and habitats of species with high economic value (mega- fauna connectivity), the system of ocean currents (located in the line of the Gulf Stream) as well as by other linking elements that facilitate the preservation of a productive ecosystem which sustains the major fisheries of scale fish and lobster in the country. Lobster, in particular, is one of the most valuable species and the largest in the Caribbean, hence the importance of conservation for sustainability.

Illegal fishing and hunting in the parks have been identified among the major threats for the attributes of these sites. To reduce their impact on the National Parks, a cooperated watch system has been implemented in coordination with parks management to ensure the enforcement of the regulations in the areas. To this end, several parties are involved in the enforcement of the legislation, such as the Border and Coast Guard (TGF), Woods and Parks Guards (CGB) and the National Office for the State Inspection (ONIE) under the Ministry of the Food Industry (MINAL). The support received from tour agencies and operators at the Jardines de la Reina National Park has been significant in ensuring custody and vigilance. Coastal communities also play a role in these areas in developing a comprehensive environmental educational programme as part of the conservation strategy and in raising the population awareness on the need to protect natural resources.

Comparaison avec d’autres biens similaires

The comparison has been established with other World Heritage Sites that are relevant because their similarities with the Cuban-Caribbean Reef System (SACC). The list includes three sites in the Caribbean (Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, Florida Keys and Seaflower Reserve of the Biosphere). Out of these, the Seaflower Reserve has been included in the Tentative List, and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, though not in the List, are comparable and are considered important for the Greater Caribbean Region.

The Cuban-Caribbean Reef System (SACC) is the sixth important marine World Heritage Site analysed because of its marine extension and coral reef area. The Cuban-Caribbean Reef System (SACC) is the largest coral formation in the system of island arches and bordering reefs associated to the largest tropical island in the Neo tropic of the Western Hemisphere and the Atlantic Ocean; and the second largest in the world after the Lagoons of New Caledonia Reef Diversity and Associated Ecosystems, a World Heritage System in the Pacific Ocean and the Eastern Hemisphere, with a larger number of mollusc species and percentage of live corals.

Rock Islands Southern Lagoon is also located on an Island Arc also in the Pacific, but not with as many relevant components, such as total extension of marine and corals and molluscs populations as the Cuban-Caribbean Reef System (SACC).

The number of live corals in the Cuban-Caribbean Reef System (SACC) are second only to the Great Barrier Reef, the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park y Rock Islands Southern Lagoon.

Another World Heritage Site relatively comparable, the Sanganeb Marine National Park and Dungonab Bay-Mukkawar Island Marine National Park, is located in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, on continental borders, but its corals are less extended

In short, the Cuban-Caribbean Reef System (SACC) largely exceeds in the number of species of marine molluscs, all the other sites studied (included those in the Caribbean) except the Great Barrier Reef.

In the Greater Caribbean, other sites, such as the Florida Keys, exceed in extension the Cuban- Caribbean Reef System (SACC), but this site has not been declared a World Heritage Site nor even included in the Indicative List. It is located on a continental platform with great terrigenous influences, much pollution and development and other pressures, so it is not comparable to the Cuban-Caribbean Reef System (SACC) and its live corals are less.

Also in the Greater Caribbean, the Seaflower Reserve of the Biosphere, which is included in the Indicative List of Wold Heritage Sites, exceeds the Cuban-Caribbean Reef System (SACC) in extension and corals. The Seaflower presents seamounts, Athlons and Ocean islands, but the presence and conservation of corals is slightly less than in the Cuban-Caribbean Reef System (SACC).

The Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System and the Sian Ka'an Reserve of the Biosphere, World Heritage Site representative of the Meso-American Reef System (SAM by its name in Spanish), a system of border barriers and reefs on the continental border, are, together, of a lesser extension in marine and corals than the Cuban-Caribbean Reef System (SACC); the fish population and the number of corals are similar, but the molluscs are much less, as well as the live coral and the fish biomass. Besides, there are anthropic pressures and of terrestrial influence that are much more than those present in the Cuban-Caribbean Reef System (SACC).