The Humboldt National Park in Cuba

The Humboldt National Park in Cuba

The "Parque Nacional Alejandro de Humboldt" is one of over 80 nature preserves created after the revolution in Cuba. This doc portrays the many treasures of this 700 square kilometer park with its one-of-a-kind rain and mountain forests, highlands, rivers, mangrove wetlands and coral reefs. We track some of the many endemic species unique to Cuba: The Bee Hummingbird lives here, the smallest bird in the world. Seven centimeters long, it weighs only two grams. Or the Monte Iberia Eleuth, which was thought to be the smallest four-legged animal until recently. The males are just a centimeter long. Even though the tiny frogs are strictly protected, floods, hurricanes and droughts still threaten their only population. The River Toa that crosses the park in the East carries the most water of any river on the island. Foreign developers wanted to build a power plant on its lower reaches in the 1990s. Although Cuba urgently needed power and cash at the time, the consequences for nature would have been disastrous. Through the personal intervention of Fidel Castro, the project was stopped and the Humboldt National Park became a reality.

Time stands sill on Cuba - not only for the economy, but also for the wildlife unique to the island, as preserved in over 700 nature reserves, including the world's smallest bird and one of the smallest four-legged animals - a centimeter-long frog.