A forest guard from the municipality of Banes, in the province of Holguín, publicly alerted about the accelerated destruction of the forests in the area as a direct consequence of the energy crisis facing Cuba: indiscriminate logging for firewood and charcoal production is devastating dozens of wooded areas every day.
Edilberto Betancourt Quevedo, a forest guard responsible for the areas of Los Ángeles, Río Secó, and part of the Mulas People's Council, was unequivocal in his statement: "Dozens of forested areas are lost every day" due to logging for firewood, uncontrolled charcoal production, and wildfires.
Betancourt Quevedo also warned that "the situation is serious and worsening, because today the reforestation plans do not align with the urgent needs and demands for the replenishment of forests."
The report, broadcast by Radio Banes and picked up by the Periódico Ahora, indicates that bakeries, pizzerias, and other businesses—both legal and illegal—often resort to using firewood as an alternative fuel "many times without oversight," further exacerbating the deterioration of the forest environment in the municipality.
The phenomenon has a structural cause: without electricity or liquefied gas, thousands of Cuban families are forced to cut down trees for cooking and survival. Power outages in Holguín reached 18 hours a day in May 2025 and by July 2026, they were still described as "endless," with the electrical grid at its breaking point.
On a national level, the Cuban electrical system closed 2025 covering only 50% of the demand, with an average deficit of 1,643 MW against a demand of 3,300 MW. In August 2026, the Unión Eléctrica reported a projected shortfall of 2,230 MW, with 106 distributed generation plants out of service due to a lack of fuel.
The pressure on forests occurs precisely when the state's capacity to replenish them has collapsed. According to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information, the production of seedlings for reforestation fell by nearly 40% between 2020 and 2024, decreasing from 24.7 million to 14.7 million plants, while the planted area dropped from 12,615 hectares to 8,191 hectares in the same period.
Wildfires complete the picture of destruction. Between January and April 2026, Cuba recorded 111 fires affecting more than 3,174 hectares, according to the Forestry Corps. Authorities attribute between 90% and 95% of these incidents to human causes: negligence, land burning, poaching, and charcoal production.
In September 2025, reports of arrests for illegal logging in natural reserves of Holguín were made, affecting Mayarí, Cacocum, Báguanos, and the hydrological regulation belt of the Holguín River, which demonstrates that the problem extends beyond Banes and permeates the entire province.
Cuba maintains a forest coverage of approximately 31%, equivalent to 3.331 million hectares according to CITMA at the end of 2023, an indicator that the regime has historically presented as an environmental achievement. However, the widening gap between the daily loss of forests and the state's inability to replenish them threatens to silently reverse decades of reforestation, while forest rangers like Betancourt Quevedo describe the situation as an environmental emergency demanding "urgent actions."
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