Abstract
This chapter explores The Ocean Foundation’s Cuba Marine Research and Conservation Program, mainly through two of its projects, the Guanahacabibes Sea Turtle Conservation Project, and the Three Gulfs Project. Both are ongoing multi-year endeavors that bring together Cuban and US researchers—from the University of Havana, the University of California Santa Cruz, and various other institutes—in unprecedented marine research. The chapter outlines the many benefits and challenges of such collaboration, and describes how The Ocean Foundation, a US-based non-governmental organization, serves as the necessary bridge in this bi-national venture to facilitate cross-border academic/scientific collaboration in a climate of political and socioeconomic tension. It examines the obstacles and processes involved in this partnership, contributions of different participants, and resulting achievements to date.
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Notes
- 1.
Benthic refers to the ecological region at the lowest level of a water body like an ocean or a lake.
- 2.
For more information on this, see the Trinational Initiative website, http://www.trinationalinitiative.org
- 3.
These efforts that began in 1999 predate even the founding of TOF as the present TOF director of CubaMar was working previously through another NGO on Cuba marine science programming with the University of Havana’s CIM that led to current TOF projects, particularly with the sea turtle conversation, and served as the de facto bridge for continuing the Cuba initiatives and the related knowledge generation.
- 4.
The designation of 501(c)(3) standing refers to the section of the US International Revenue Service tax code that grants tax-exempt status to organizations operating for specific purposes that are charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, and/or related to testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition, and preventing cruelty to children or animals (IRS 2017).
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Siciliano, D., Bretos, F., Azanza, J., Svenson, N. (2018). Science Beyond Politics: Cuba-US Marine Research and Conservation. In: Gregorutti, G., Svenson, N. (eds) North-South University Research Partnerships in Latin America and the Caribbean. International and Development Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75364-5_3
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