Cuba: Geography and Environment

Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean Sea, positioned at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico between the Straits of Florida to the north and the Caribbean Sea to the south. The country stretches in a long narrow arc for more than 1,200 kilometers, with Jamaica to the south and the Bahamas and the United States to the north. Its terrain is defined by low rolling plains that cover most of the interior, broken by three main mountain ranges: the Sierra Maestra in the southeast, the Escambray Mountains in the center, and the Sierra del Rosario and Sierra de los Organos in the west.

Cuba's regions vary from the fertile red soil plains of Pinar del Rio, known for tobacco cultivation, to the sugarcane growing plains of the central provinces and the rugged coastline of Oriente in the east. The climate is tropical, moderated by trade winds, with a wet season from May to October and a drier season from November to April. The island sits within the Atlantic hurricane belt, and tropical storms and hurricanes are a regular seasonal concern between June and November.

Environmental priorities in Cuba center on protecting its extensive coral reef systems and mangrove coastlines, which support both marine biodiversity and coastal fisheries. Roughly a fifth of the country's land area falls under some form of protected status, including national parks and biosphere reserves that safeguard endemic species found nowhere else in the Caribbean. Ongoing concerns include balancing growth in coastal tourism with reef and wetland conservation, managing soil erosion in agricultural regions, and building resilience against increasingly intense hurricane seasons.