Havana - Environment ministers and forestry authorities from Central America will join efforts with their colleagues from the Caribbean and the rest of Latin America to boost regional reforestation, at a meeting that opens on Wednesday with Cuba''s official incorporation.

The Bonn Challenge is the name of that initiative that started in 2011 under the umbrella of the International Union for the Preservation of Nature with a major objective: restoring 350 million hectares by 2030.

Its first meetings have been held since 2015 in Central America: El Salvador, Panama and Honduras.

Cuba is attending now with a joint declaration at the end of the meeting, Jesus Guerra, from the organizing committee, told a news conference.

At present, the initiative consists of 58 national and subnational commitments to restoring landscapes, equivalent to 170.43 million hectares.

At the opening session of this first Caribbean meeting, attended by officials from 23 countries, Jochen Flasbarth, secretary of State-Federal Ministry of Environment of Germany, the main sponsor of the project, will give a speech.

With a forest rate of 31 percent, Cuba has shown good results in its programs to adjust to climate change and mitigate its consequences. For two years, it has carried out a government plan with that objective.