Sierra Cristal National Park

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Sierra Cristal National Park
IUCN category II (national park)

Sierra del Cristal 0006.jpg

Sierra de Cristal
Cuba physical map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location of Sierra Cristal National Park in Cuba
Location Holguín Province, Cuba
Nearest city Mayarí
Coordinates 20°32′31″N75°28′34″W / 20.54194°N 75.47611°W / 20.54194; -75.47611 Coordinates: 20°32′31″N75°28′34″W / 20.54194°N 75.47611°W / 20.54194; -75.47611
Area 185.37 km2 (71.57 sq mi) [1]
Established 1930 [2]

Sierra Cristal National Park (Spanish : Parque Nacional Sierra Cristal) is a national park in Cuba. It is located in the municipalities of Mayarí and Sagua de Tánamo in southern Holguín Province. It was the first National Park created in Cuba in 1930, [2] and covers an area of 185.37 km2 (71.57 sq mi). [1]

Spanish language Romance language

Spanish or Castilian, is a Western Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain and today has hundreds of millions of native speakers in the Americas and Spain. It is a global language and the world's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese.

National park park used for conservation purposes of animal life and plants

A national park is a park in use for conservation purposes. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently, there is a common idea: the conservation of 'wild nature' for posterity and as a symbol of national pride. An international organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and its World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), has defined "National Park" as its Category II type of protected areas.

Cuba Country in the Caribbean

Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean meet. It is east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both the U.S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti and north of both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. The area of the Republic of Cuba is 110,860 square kilometres (42,800 sq mi). The island of Cuba is the largest island in Cuba and in the Caribbean, with an area of 105,006 square kilometres (40,543 sq mi), and the second-most populous after Hispaniola, with over 11 million inhabitants.

Contents

Overview

It is located in the heights of Sierra Cristal (Cristal Mountains), one of the highest mountain range in Cuba (second only to Sierra Maestra). Cristal Peak (Pico Cristal) reaches an elevation of 1,300 m (4,300 ft).

Sierra Maestra mountain range

Sierra Maestra is a mountain range that runs westward across the south of the old Oriente Province in southeast Cuba, rising abruptly from the coast. The Sierra Maestra itself is located mainly in Santiago de Cuba Province and in Granma Province. Some view it as a series of connecting ranges, which joins with others extending to the west. The Sierra Maestra is the highest area of Cuba. It is rich in minerals, especially copper, manganese, chromium, and iron. At 1,974 m (6,476 ft), Pico Turquino is the range's highest point.

Conservation

The ranges are dominated by pine forests. Cuban pine (Pinus cubensis) can reach heights of 30 m (98 ft) in this area. The endangered Cuban solenodon (Solenodon cubanus) can be found in Sierra Cristal.

Cuban pine forests

The Cuban pine forests are a tropical coniferous forest ecoregion on the Caribbean islands of Cuba and Isla de la Juventud. They cover an area of 6,400 km2 (2,500 sq mi), occurring in separate sections in eastern Cuba and western Cuba and Isla de la Juventud.

Cuban solenodon species of mammal

The Cuban solenodon or almiqui, is a species of soricomorph endemic to Cuba. It belongs to the family Solenodontidae along with a similar species, the Hispaniolan solenodon. The solenodon is unusual among mammals in that its saliva is venomous.

A research center established in 1988 in Pinares de Mayarí monitors the ecology of the region. [3]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 National Protected Areas System of Cuba. "Protected Areas". Archived from the original on 2007-08-10. Retrieved 2007-10-10.
  2. 1 2 National Protected Areas System of Cuba. "Antecedentes del Sistema Nacional de Areas Protegidas". Archived from the original on 2007-05-20. Retrieved 2007-10-10.
  3. ↑ Radio Habana. "Sierra Cristal: el primer parque nacional cubano" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2007-10-04. Retrieved 2007-10-10.


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