Action Plan actualization of the Strategy for the Conservation of Fungal Diversity in Cuba

Abstract

The Strategy for the Conservation of Fungal Diversity in Cuba was concluded during the implementation of the “Fungi of the Caribbean” project (1997-2000), which was financed by the Darwin Initiative of the United Kingdom. Although, since then, the strategy has constituted a reference document executing different actions in national and international projects developed in this period. Due to the time elapsed since its preparation, it was urgent to update its Action Plan to make it correspond to the National Program on Biological Diversity (NPBD) for the period 2016-2020. Updating was carried out through group discussion sessions in workshops where members and collaborators of the project "Implementation of the Strategy for the Conservation of Fungal Diversity in Cuba" and relevant invited specialists participated. In these sessions, the Action Plan of the fungal strategy was analyzed so that it corresponded to the NPDB goals and actions. Sixty-five actions were identified, of which ten are included in Goal 1, related to public awareness of biological diversity and the ecosystem services it provides, followed by Goal 5 that addresses the sustainable management of areas for agriculture and forestry and Goal 18 dealing with the transfer and application of knowledge, the scientific base and technologies in support of the NPBD, with 5 actions each; while those with the fewest number of actions one each, were Goals 4, 10 and 14; the first two related to marine-coastal ecosystems and the last to reduction of the degradation of habitats, ecosystems and landscapes.