What began as an effort to build bridges with the Ibero-American scientific community. It has, after a year, transformed into concrete achievements for the Center for Environmental and Technological Research and Services of Holguin (CISAT). The institution is celebrating the first anniversary of the creation and approval of Scientific Node C87 within the Ibero-American Proplayas Network. Which expands its resources for addressing the island’s coastal challenges.
The incorporation of CISAT into this academic network, which brings together more than eighty nodes throughout Ibero-America. It was led by researcher Elier Alexander Córdova García, who assumed the node’s coordination. For specialists, belonging to Proplayas (ProBeaches), a network founded in 2007 and coordinated from Colombia by Dr. Camilo Botero Saltarén. It is equivalent to joining the world’s largest collaborative laboratory for Integrated Beach Management.
“This node offers us an unprecedented platform,” Córdova García stated through the center’s official channels. “It not only showcases the work we have been developing for years on Cuba’s northeastern coast. But also allows us to exchange knowledge, methodologies, and experiences with experts from some twenty countries. From Mexico to Portugal, precisely when climate change demands increasingly fast and coordinated responses.”
Membership in the Proplayas Network acts as a catalyst for new capabilities. Thanks to strategic alliances with the International Center for Training in Beach Management and Certification (CIFPLAYAS). CISAT specialists completed Expert and Explorer level courses and were certified as international evaluators.
Since 2024, the team has actively participated in the prestigious International Beach Ranking. Which applies rigorous scientific criteria (from environmental quality indicators and services to governance and safety) to classify beaches worldwide.
This evaluator role, unprecedented for a center in eastern Cuba. It allows the Holguin experts to immerse themselves in the reality of Caribbean beaches outside the island. Training that, according to Córdova García himself, “returns to Cuba in the form of more refined methodologies. For diagnosing, certifying, and, above all, protecting our sun and beach destinations.”
Moreover the CISAT leadership envisions that, in a second phase, the province’s own beaches could be submitted to this international standard. Attracting increasingly demanding tourism focused on sustainability.
With the C87 Node now consolidated, the center’s next challenge is to expand its network of local collaborators. Also to propose joint projects focused on coastal resilience to the Proplayas Network.
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