Cosme Casals Corella,
National Environment Award 2023.
By: Mavel Ponce de León Hernández*
The province of Holguín, 735.5 kilometers from Havana, Wonder City of the World, has unique natural landscapes and others still undiscovered. Regarding the topic, we spoke exclusively for Radio Havana Cuba with the 2023 National Environment Prize winner, Cosme Casals Corella.
-How do you describe and define Holguín?
“Holguín is a province that is a mosaic of landscapes between its coasts and mountains. It has a potential for developing the nature of the archipelago, bathed by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, with more than 300 kilometers of coastline, nineteen bays of pockets and more of forty beaches intended primarily for tourist use”.
– According to your criteria, what are the most protected sites?
“The mountainous areas of Holguín, the regions of the Maniabón Group, Sierra Cristal, the Sierra de Nipe, the great Sagua-Moa-Baracoa Group, which has great potential and we must conserve.”
-What areas of Mayari and Moa should be protected from the actions of man, in your opinion?
“The Bay of Nipe, where the Virgin of Charity was found, the Yayal where the emissaries of Christopher Columbus discovered the use of tobacco. It is a province that has great natural values…” he stated.
-Based on your experience in the creation of nature tourism products, do you consider that there is a potential yet to be exploited in Holguín?
“Yes, there is a great tourism potential to be exploited. Ecological nature tourism is incipient in the province. It is not at full capacity, with all these ecosystems. That potential is not being exploited, and there are those ecosystems with great values, which They are not only natural, historical, cultural. And they have great importance” stated Corella Casals.
-You accompanied Dr. Eusebio Leal Spengler, (1942-2020), on his last visit to Holguín, and offered suggestions regarding Gibara.? What exactly did Leal Spengler refer to?
“Yes, on April 4, 20013, at the José Juan Arrom Colloquium, Eusebio Leal Spengler told us that it was important to take advantage of this tourism potential along the line of the fortifications and that they have great natural beauty of the landscape, on the highway from Holguín to Gibara. And that a sign could be placed with information about what happened in each place. And in the end have a large natural historical park.”
-Of your multiple investigations, which do you consider to be the greatest contribution to the development of the province?
“From my research that has been in nature tourism we can appreciate today the Great Christopher Columbus Park.”
-From your personal experience, what do you suggest to girls, boys and families to protect the environment?
“Protect everything that is done for the good of nature for our present and future generations. They must enjoy that nature.
“The Maniabón Group is important, it is located between the central periplane between the municipalities of Gibara and Banes, with a strip of 20 to 30 kilometers. It is where the greatest tourist development in the eastern provinces is established. And it also constitutes part of what which is the Cristóbal Colón Park.
We are immersed in protecting these resources for the sake of our sustainable development. “With the purpose of carrying out ecological tourism, for the good of the country,” he stated.
Cosme Casals, a geologist by profession, has written about twenty titles and scientific articles, published in magazines and publishing houses in Cuba, and abroad among these “The first voyage of Christopher Columbus to Cuba” co-authored with Miguel Esquivel Pérez.
*Radio Havana Cuba correspondent in Holguín
