Cuchillas del Toa
biosphere reserve in Cuba
Cuchillas del Toa (English: Ridges of Toa) is a Biosphere Reserve in Cuba. It is located in the eastern part of the country, mostly in the Guantánamo Province and reaching to the north into the Holguín Province. Most of the reserve is established in the drainage area of the Toa River, which flows for 118 km (73 mi) to the Atlantic Ocean in Baracoa.
Overview
The reserve extends along 2,083.05 square kilometres (804.27 sq mi), of which 60.13 square kilometres (23.22 sq mi) to the marine area. Cuchillas del Toa is considered as one of the principal centers of biodiversity and endemism in Cuba and the insular Caribbean with pine forests, cloud forests and xeric scrub to complex coastal vegetation with mangroves and coral reefs. The karstic system of the great cave of Moa Head lands is one of the five natural monuments in the country and one of the great cave systems in eastern Cuba. With high biodiversity in flora and fauna, there are 928 endemic species reported, including primitive species belonging to the genera Podocarpus and Dracaena. Cuchillas del Toa is home to the highly endangered Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis bairdii), Cuban kite (Chondrohierax wilsoni), and the Cuban solenodon (Solenodon cubanus). Some of the world's smallest mammal species are found in the reserve. About 18,300 inhabitants (2002), in 498 communities, live in the buffer zone and transition area of this mountainous reserve.
“Cuchillas del Toa” enters the record as biosphere reserve in Cuba. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Cuchillas, biosphere and reserve can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2683771. Authority coordinates are 20.260, -74.690. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2002.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cuchillas del Toa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.