Alexander von Humboldt National Park

The park owes its name to the eminent German naturalist, known as the second discoverer of Cuba due the numerous and important studies which he made of the country.

The Alexander von Humboldt National Park has historically been an area of land little used by man, with only one archaeological site from the pre-Columbian period being known; this is located in the coastal zone of Aguas Verdes.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries some peripheral places were used as refuges or camps by maroons.

It was not until the beginning and middle of the twentieth century that the land was used for the cultivation of coconut palms and cacao. In the zone of La Melba mining of chromium and for the mineral industry in general was developed.

The park began to be laid out in the 1960s, with the declaration of the Jaguani and Cupeyal del Norte nature reserves. This continued into the 80s with the proposal of the Ojito del Agua Refuge, associated with the last sighting of the Royal Woodpecker, a last remnant of this species which was already extinct in its other habitats in the United States and Mexico.

In this unique ecosystem there are unique flora and fauna which have the highest indexes of endemicity in the archipelago.

In 1996 these protected areas were united to found the Alexander von Humboldt National Park, the most important biosphere reserve in the Caribbean basin, which with Cuchillas de Toa, in 2001 was declared a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site.