Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

According to the categorization of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF, for its acronym in English), xeromorphic scrublands are terrestrial ecoregions of importance for conservation. In order to characterize the floristic composition and structure of a coastal and subcoastal xeromorphic scrub, the following study was developed, at the "El Rosal" site located in the semi-arid zone of the Guantánamo province. Twenty sampling plots with an area of 20 x 25 m were established; the diameter (1.30) and height of all individuals e" 5 cm were recorded, the sampling was validated with the area-species curve. With the values obtained, the Shannon, equity and Simpson diversity indices and beta diversity were calculated through an analysis of hierarchical clusters, by means of the Sorensen distance measure, the horizontal structure and the vertical structure through the description of the strata. of the vegetation. A total of 15 species belonging to 10 genera and 11 families were recorded, where the species of greatest ecological importance were Guaiacum officinale L. and Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit. In the cluster analysis, three clusters were distinguished with 63 % similarity. Low floristic diversity was demonstrated and the vegetation reached up to 5 m in dominant height and the species with the highest sociological position were Guaiacum officinale, Leucaena leucocephala and Azadirachta indica.

Amazonian tropical forests have an enormous variety of species and are recognized for their great biodiversity and carbon sequestration, but they are threatened by anthropogenic pressure from land use change. Therefore, the objective of this research was to evaluate the accumulated aerial biomass and ecological sustainability of an Amazonian forest in the Cotococha community. Five 0.1 ha transects (10 x 100 m) separated at 100 m intervals were established and all tree species were recorded with D1.30 ≥10 cm. Ecological indicators were evaluated based on vegetation, soil, biodiversity and productivity. Aerial biomass was estimated using allometric equations and the biomass importance value index (BIVF) was determined. The families Melastomataceae, Fabaceae, Euphorbiaceae and Salicaceae presented the highest number of species. The distribution of diameter classes showed an inverted J trend. The ecological su stainability diagnosis showed that not all indicators reach the sustainability threshold. An area biomass of 78.67 ± 5.87 Mg ha-1 and a carbon stock of 39.33 ± 2.34 Mg ha-1 were reported. The three families with the highest BIVF were Melastomataceae with 38.43, Annonaceae with 24.36 and Meliaceae with 22.69 These families could be recommended for restoration programs within the community, due to their high potential to accumulate aerial biomass and carbon stock, contributing to a management that allows them to improve and reach the threshold of sustainability in all ecological indicators.

Despite the wide diversity suggested for the Colombian Pacific, to date little has been documented about its flooded forests, which have not allowed management strategies to be undertaken according to the characteristics of the sites. In order to contribute to the knowledge of these ecosystems, the floristic structure was characterized and the carbon stored in the total biomass of three flooded forests (Mangrove, Sajal and Guandal) was estimated. Ten plots of 0.1 ha were established. Individuals with diameter (D1.30) > 5 cm and height in meters were measured. Aerial biomass was calculated using allometric equations developed for this type of ecosystem. The Importance Value Index was determined. A Principal Component Analysis was performed to compare the composition and structure of the three ecosystems. Data on number of individuals, basal area, biomass and carbon were compared using the Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric analysis of variance. A total of 1678 individuals were recorded, grouped into 92 species and 38 botanical families. On average, 29.5 MgC ha-1 were found stored in total biomass (below and above ground), distributed in Mangrove 37.7 MgC ha-1, Sajal 28.3 MgC ha-1 and Guandal 22.4 MgC ha-1. Mangrove presents a greater number of individuals than Guandal and Sajal. Two groups were found: the first dominated by one species and the second with more than three dominant species.

Land use change studies are very important tools because they evaluate the speed of deforestation/reforestation, determine its geographic extension and comprehend the social and economic causes of the changes at global, regional and local scales. The objective of this work was to analyze land use changes in the Guangras sector, in an area of 1 609.48 ha focused on to the recovery of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in the southern zone of the eastern Andean Cordillera within Sangay National Park. A spatio-temporal study was carried out through satellite images, where Landsat images were pre-processed and classified using ArcGis 10.1 software to determine the change in land use and the analysis of the transition matrix. As a result of this geospatial study, five land uses were identified: moorland, agricultural crops, forest, grassland and water bodies, as well as a change dynamic from 1991 to 2016, in relation to the forest, a decrease of 2.47 %, of moorland 0.76 %, of water bodies 0.28 %, while grassland increased by 3.07 %, and agricultural crops by 1.88 %.

There are organizations that work with ethical and solidarity finance to help a community or individuals. These organizations are growing and generating an increasing impact on the economy, although their participation is small, they have managed to consolidate and become an important economic sector due to their social character since they provide support to the most vulnerable people. Therefore, this article aims to identify which organizations work with ethical and solidarity finance in some regions of Latin America and Colombia. The methodology used was qualitative and descriptive. For the research method, documentary analysis was used based on dialectics and analysis-synthesis. The first step was to conceptualize finance, ethical finance and finally solidarity finance. Then, from a global perspective, it is reviewed which are the main entities that promote ethical and solidarity finance. Afterwards, an exploration of some Latin American entities is made and finally it is recognized which organizations in Colombia work with this type of finances. The organizations that promote ethical and solidarity finance in Europe represent 71% of credit disbursements, while in conventional banking they only represented 40%. In Colombia, 65% of loans were placed by banks and 28% by microcredit NGOs and the rest in cooperatives.

The country has different national programs that procure food. However, it is not possible to guarantee sufficient diversity in the food diet. The monthly subsidized food basket covers almost forty percent of the recommended energy intake, the rest is covered by households in non-subsidized markets characterized by irregular supply. This situation, in part, is generated by low productivity in the agro-industrial sector, low agricultural yields and high post-harvest losses, just to mention a few causes. Faced with this scenario, the country approved a plan to support, from science, food production as a way to achieve greater food sovereignty in the nation. This research aims to show the development of a system that allows the visualization of indicators related to food production in the territories, from the Observatory of Food Sovereignty and Nutritional Education of Pinar del Río. Theoretical and empirical methods were used, which allowed achieving a scientific, technological and practical result, considered relevant for the sector because it integrates in its various services analysis with indicators of different structure and analytical categories, measurement sources and technologies that facilitate the mapping of the baseline that each territory needs for its projection, planning and control of results. This system, in addition to working the baseline, is flexible and allows the introduction of new categories, analysis methodologies and indicators, which increase its prospective use value.

In the control actions carried out in non-agricultural cooperatives in the province of Pinar del Río during the IX and XI National Internal Control Verification, a group of situations that hindered the development and consolidation of non-agricultural cooperatives were identified. Among them, it was found that the existing self-control guide was not adequate to the characteristics of this new form of management, which caused cracks in the efficiency and effectiveness of their internal control. The objective of this research is: To design a self-control guide for non-agricultural cooperatives in the province of Pinar del Río. For its implementation, the characteristics and particularities of the Non-Agricultural Cooperative Taller de Calzado "Estrella Roja" of Pinar del Río were taken into account. As a result, the Self-Control Guide to suit the characteristics of non-agricultural cooperatives was designed, which consists of 72 aspects to be verified, distributed in the five components of internal control of the Self-Control Guide used, which allowed having a tool that will strengthen internal control and, consequently, to improve its operation. It also made it possible to evaluate the advantages of its implementation.

The objective of this study is to explore the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the portfolio of a saving and credit cooperative in Portoviejo, Ecuador, and to identify factors associated with the probability of reporting slowness. The literature addressing the effects of the pandemic on financial institutions has focused primarily on the rapid digitization of the industry and, geographically, in developed countries. To date, little literature has reported on the effect of the pandemic on saving and credit cooperatives in developing countries. A case study was designed with mixed-methods, combining regulatory content and cooperatives reports with a sample database of credit transactions between January 2019 and December 2021, and the data were analyzed using hypothesis testing and regression analysis. The variables that were best associated with the likelihood of a borrower reporting late payments are the amount of the credit, the time the credit was extended whether before or after the onset of the pandemic, and the sex of the borrowing member. The results can inform new experimental studies that will provide a deeper understanding of what works and what does not work for credit cooperatives during periods of crisis.

The tourism industry is considered a key factor for economic development and has gained importance in national, regional and global economies. As a result, it represents one of the vital sources of income in many developing countries, mainly in the Caribbean area. Added to this is the trend of an increasingly uncertain and dynamic world. Therefore, it is necessary to plan by means of tourism demand forecasting. Cuba, as a developing country, has one of the main economic activities: the tourism industry. However, there are no exhaustive studies in the specialized literature on demand forecasting methods in the country. Therefore, the main objective is to review the general trends and the evolution of tourism demand forecasting methods in a historical perspective and to trace the development of demand forecasting methods in Cuba to serve as a starting point for future research, as well as to carry out a large-scale search using as keywords: "forecasting", "demand" and "tourism". As main results, four classifications of the methods for tourism demand forecasting that have been implemented in Cuba and the existence of few demand forecasting studies in the tourism sector are determined; this makes it difficult to make decisions in forecasting the behavior of outbound markets.

Sustainable tourism is a paradigm for the organizations and regions that promote its achievement. However, the growth of tourism activity must not be detrimental to the natural and sociocultural environment of tourist destinations, which is why it is necessary to promote its sustainability. The objective of this work was to design a system of indicators in terms of process, results and performance that made it possible to evaluate, at the local level, the management of training in favor of sustainable tourism. Different research methods, procedures and techniques were used to obtain the proposed system of indicators. With the application of the system of indicators in the locality of Viñales, Pinar del Río, an evaluation superior to the initial one was achieved, obtaining an overall evaluation of Acceptable and an advance in the economic indicators related to live work as an expression of the development of competences for sustainable tourism.