 BirdLife
Around a hundred West Indian Whistling-ducks have been recorded in one of the proposed rice paddy IBAs
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Rice paddies proposed as Cuban IBAs
05-01-2006
Two rice paddies with neighbouring coastal areas are unusual candidates among the Important Bird Areas (IBAs) proposed for Cuba.
IBAs are normally located in natural areas, and single-crop cultivation is not what typically comes to mind when one thinks of bird conservation. However, in Cuba, rice cultivation goes through a wet and dry cycle, and since rice is grown constantly over large expanses, there are always fields in varying stages of flooding and draining, leading to high levels of vertebrate and invertebrate biodiversity.
Another important factor is that in the last 15 years chemical use has been reduced by c. 50%, which has turned the rice paddies into important bird feeding areas, while neighbouring wetlands are resting and nesting areas.
The first of these proposed IBAs is the Costa Sur de Sancti Spiritus. It encompasses the Sur del Jíbaro, one of the country's most important rice paddies and a place widely held to host large concentrations of aquatic birds. To the south, it includes a coastal strip of wetlands composed of several important lagoons, such as El Basto and La Limeta, and a strip of mangroves that is several kilometres wide at some points. The area is c. 60,593 ha and 107 species of birds have been recorded there. Numerous migratory species also gather here, especially wading birds and ducks.
The second IBA has a similar environment and is located in the south of Pinar del Río province. It includes a group of natural coastal wetlands and the adjacent rice paddies between Los Palacios and Consolación del Sur. The area has more than 101 species of bird, with a notable abundance of aquatic birds, particularly herons and an estimated 20,000 Glossy Ibis Plegadis falcinellus. There are thought to be more than one hundred of the globally threatened West Indian Whistling-duck Dendrocygna arborea in the area.
A conservation project titled Rice Paddies and Natural Wetlands as Conservation Sites for Aquatic Birds is being developed in both areas. Financed by the Whitley Fund for Nature and implemented by the group Ecología de Aves from the Universidad de la Habana's Biology Department, this effort has gathered the information needed to propose IBA status.