Creating Sustainable Futures in the Face of Climate Change: Cuba

In May 2019 and February 2020, I traveled with Ecothropic to eastern Cuba, and I learned more in those two trips than in 20 years of research. I have spent most of my professional career researching and reading about resilience - what does it mean? what does it look like? - how is it related to climate change adaptation? These questions have guided a lot of my professional work for nearly the past two decades. The trip to Cuba, the people we met, and the stories we heard defined resilience in a way that no peer-reviewed journal article or conference proceedings has been able to capture. For me, I learned what resilience IS. I witnessed it. I felt it. Now, I know what resilience is, because of my experience on the Cuba trip. Thank you Britt for this mind-expanding learning adventure!

I learned that it is important to understand a system before engaging with it, whether it is an ecosystem or a person... Cuba showed me what people can do by relying on each other. Cuba being a small island that has been truncated financially by the United States is a real example of resilience and community driven solutions. Because of their limited resources, Cubans must make use of everything with as much efficiency as possible and maintain the quality of their resources over time. This results in amazing solutions and innovations for agriculture such as crop rotations and water management solutions. Ecothropic showcases these unique and resourceful aspects of Cuba through direct access to the people creating them. Which is the most valuable way of learning in my opinion.