Organisations
involved in sustainable development
in Cuba

This is hardly an exhaustive list, it is the organisations that members of COSG have met, worked with or read about. If you have information and publications by other Cuban groups active in areas of sustainable development please let us know and we will add them to the list.

Ministry of Agriculture - City of Havana Province There are eleven research institutes in the province including the Institute for Pastures and Forages, where worm composting was popularised. The organisation of the Ministry and support it provides is described in the report by Mario Gonzalez Novo.

As the MinAgri continues to turn food production units into self-supporting co-operatives, so it concentrates on innovation and exploration of new ideas like agro-forestry and community and municipal composting projects; and on infrastructural projects like the reforestation of the city. The main nursery and trial ground for the reforestation project is at Havana Botanic Gardens which is in the south of the province, beyond Parque Lenin.

The original focus of development of 'ecological agriculture' in Cuba was at the University of Havana. Interest in the 70's became the Centre of Studies for Sustainable Agriculture in the 80's. When the crisis hit and the government looked for solutions, it was the Centre they turned to. There were about 50 people from different organisations who linked up through the Centre and oversaw the tranformation of Cuba's agricultural system, and the development of the necessary educational support system. Now there are M.A.'s and Ph.D.'s in agro-ecological studies, and extension schools supporting part-time home based education. It was members of the Centre who first promoted urban gardening.

It was the Asociación Cubana de Agricultura Orgánico (ACAO) who were the key group in spreading the new agro-ecological system. Their role was given global recognition when they were awarded a Right Livelihood Award in 1998 by the Swedish Parliament. In 1999 ACAO became a part of a wider organisation, the Asociación Cubana de Téchnicos Agrícolas y Forestales ( the Association of Agricultural and Forestry Technicians - ACTAF). They became the Grupo de Agricultura Orgánico (GAO)

The Group for the Integral Development of the Capital was one of the first NGOs to involve foreign support when they made contact with Australian permaculturalists. Later another NGO, la Fundacion de Antonio Nuñez Jiminez por Naturaleza y Hombre, ( the Foundation for Nature and Humanity - FNH) became the Australians' partner organisation. The FNH now works with several different foreign NGO's implementing sustainability projects.

Proyecto Communitario: Conservación de Alimentos (Community Food Preservation Project) is based in the municipality of Marianao but spreads its message much further than that. In 1999 they welcomed visitors from 40 different countries at their centre.

The Cuban Council of Churches - Consejo de Iglesias de Cuba, Departmento de Coordinación y Asesoria de Proyectos (CIC_DECAP) are working on rural sustainability projects, spreading the use and development of appropriate technologies without relying on outside technicians, looking for techniques which can be spread from farmer to farmer without outside guidance. In 1996-97 DECAP published a series of pamphlets under the title "Caminos Alternativos" containing practical advice on all aspects of organic gardening. In 1999 they worked with the Estación Territorial de Investigaciones Agropecuarias de Holguin (ETIAH) producing a pamphlet series on sustainable agriculture for the small farmers of Holguin province.