CubaPLUS Magazine

The Dominican Republic and Cuba are strengthening their technical and scientific cooperation to boost resilience, disaster risk management, and climate change adaptation across strategic sectors.

During a technical exchange meeting between experts from both nations, participants presented progress on joint initiatives. These efforts focus on strengthening early warning systems, meteorological modeling, and developing decision-making tools for climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture.

Max Puig, Executive Vice President of the National Council for Climate Change and the Carbon Market of the Dominican Republic, led the technical session. The meeting centered on peer-to-peer dialogue, expert discussions, and the identification of shared needs and opportunities.

The Cuban Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Ángel Arzuaga Reyes, also attended as a special guest.

Puig emphasized that regional collaboration is vital to addressing the shared challenges of global warming, particularly for Caribbean island nations, which are among the most exposed and vulnerable to extreme hydrometeorological events.

"Small Island Developing States, such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic, do not only need increased funding to adapt to the impacts of climate change," Puig noted. "We are also duty-bound to cooperate, leveraging our respective strengths to enhance our collective capacity to confront the multiple challenges imposed by this new reality."

The meeting featured key experts from the Meteorology Institute of Cuba (INSMET), including Dr. Cecilia Fonseca Rivera, Senior Researcher at the Climate Center; Ramses Vásquez Montenegro, Senior Researcher at the Agricultural Meteorology Department; and Arnoldo Bezanilla Morlot, Associate Researcher at the Atmospheric Physics Center.

Representing the technical team of the Dominican Republic's National Council for Climate Change and the Carbon Market were Pamela Abreu, Head of the Mitigation Department; Karen Hedemann, Head of International Relations; and Ofelia Castro, Head of Inter-institutional Relations.

Among the innovations presented were applications designed for agricultural data collection and analysis. These include operational crop information systems that allow users to evaluate climate scenarios, estimate potential yields, and support agricultural planning and management.

These tools provide strategic data for both farmers and policymakers, helping agricultural production systems adapt to shifting climate conditions.

Participants also exchanged data on projected temperature shifts, precipitation patterns, tropical cyclones, and extreme weather events in the region, as well as the strengths and uncertainties of global and regional climate models applied to the Caribbean archipelago.

Cuba and the Dominican Republic are already collaborating on several initiatives, including a project backed by the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) to develop a regional disaster early warning system, which also includes Haiti.

(Taken from Prensa Latina)