• Submitted by: manso
• Editorial Articles
• 12 / 08 / 2010

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Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development in CUBA from February 12 - 20, 2011. Research Tour February 12 - 20, 2011.Globalexchange.org.Join us on this amazing tour and meet the Cuban policymakers and practitioners who have put in place one of the world's most hopeful alternative models for sustainable development!

Program Highlights: Tour of sustainable development projects in Havana and Old Havana Urban gardens and farmers' markets in urban and rural Cuba Meetings with staff of environmental education NGOs and Ministries Tour of Las Terrazas intentional sustainable community Environmental Protection in the Sierra Rosario Biosphere Reserve.

Renewable Energy NGO's and vocational-technical school, Recycling and Environmental Clean up projects, Natural Medicine Clinics and pharmacies Morning Yoga classes at oceanfront hotel Cultural Activities. Small group meetings according to professional interest

1. For complete programmatic and travel/logistical information on this research tour:

http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/1156.html

2. For application forms:
http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/forms.html

Dear Colleague,

In its 2006 Sustainability Index Report, the World Wildlife Fund, utilizing a combination of the United Nations Human Development Index (a measure of how well a nation is meeting its nutrition, water, health care, and education needs, etc.) and the Ecological Footprint (natural resource use per capita) determined that there is only one nation in the world that is currently living sustainably -- and that nation is CUBA.

How did Cuba, a small island nation of 11,000,000 people, struggling with issues of poverty, the U.S. embargo, and devastating annual hurricanes, achieve this extraordinary distinction? And what can environmentalists in the U.S. learn from Cuba's struggles and successes?

Travel with us and meet the policy makers and practitioners who make it happen!

Throughout the 1960's, 70's and 80's, the Cuban people enjoyed the highest quality-of-life indices in Latin America, rivaling the United States and other countries of the developed world. Cuba was internationally praised as the one developing country that had eradicated hunger and the World Health Organization touted the Cuban health care system as a "model for the world." As early as 1989, Cuba ranked 11th in the world in the Overseas Development Council's Physical Quality of Life Index, (which includes infant mortality, life expectancy and literacy) while the U.S. ranked 15th.

After the setbacks of the 1990's, caused by the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the tightening of the U.S. Embargo, Cuba's quality of life indices did decline slightly for a few years, but then steadily improved. Denied their former imports of petroleum products and pharmaceuticals, Cuba's 35,000 scientists, operating in 200 research institutes across the island, began to explore more sustainable ways to meet their food, medicine and energy needs.

Extraordinary innovations in organic agriculture and urban gardens earned Cuban agriculturists the Alternative Nobel Prize/Right Livelihood Award; advances in renewable energy including solar, wind, micro-hydro, biogas, and biomass, and island-wide energy efficiency campaigns earned the Cuban NGO Cuba Solar, the UN Global 500 award; and the development of alternative and traditional health care practices earned Cuba recognition by the UN Development Council, as one of the five most important projects in health care internationally.

25% of Cuba's land is in a "Protected Area"; it's coral reefs are healthy (Jacques Cousteau used to say that whenever he was in despair about the state of the world's oceans, he thought of Cuba and his hope was renewed); and it is one of the few nations in the world to have increased its percentage of forested land in the past several decades.

Cuba models, for the rest of the world, the possibility of obtaining a relatively high quality of life, on a relatively small national budget, while utilizing low levels of the planet's limited resources. This tiny island nation may be showing us a way to live simply, healthfully, and sustainably on the Earth.

We look forward to your inquiries and interest!

Sincerely,

Pam Montanaro
Eco Cuba Exchange http://www.ecocubaexchange.org
pam@...
510-649-1052
510-318-4910 (cell)

 http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/1156.html

Global Exchange Reality Tours, a licensed Cuba Travel Service Provider, has over 20 years experience arranging Cuba travel for professional, educational,cultural, and "people to people" delegations to research every aspect of Cuban life.

Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/119372