This year, the event was dedicated to discuss the work done by the notable Cuban geographer, speleologist and archaeologist, who was an example for the scientific community in Cuba and in the Americas, due to his commitment to natural preservation.

The exhibition on the expert was sponsored by the Antonio Nuñez Jimenez Foundation for Nature and Mankind, by panelists Angel Graña, vice president of the institution, and Luis Urgelles, coordinator of the Heritage Conservation and Cultural Services Program of that entity.

Both lectures focused on the need to take care of all that common asset that the environment and each of the existing ecosystems on Earth give us, areas that were highly valued by the eminent scientist and to which he dedicated most of his life and work.

The Cuban geographer carried out research in this field in China, Africa, the Galapagos Islands, Easter Island and others, and perhaps the most recognized work under his aegis was the expedition called “In Canoe from the Amazon to the Caribbean, 1987-1988,” a journey through twenty countries in the Amazon, Orinoco and the Caribbean Sea.

As president of the Speleological Society of Cuba, the National Monuments Commission, and he Center for the Study of Rock Art in Latin America and the Caribbean, Nuñez Jimenez researched about life in the Amazon regions.

His expeditions to the North Pole (1972) and Antarctica (1998) gave even more recognition to his scientific work, as well as the explorations in the Andes, from Peru to Venezuela.

The experts on the panel explained the tireless research works done by Nuñez Jimenez, who also received more than 95 decorations abroad.

On May 16, 1994, he created the Foundation for Nature and Mankind.

In 1995, he was bestowed Honorary Degree in Geographical Sciences from the University of Havana, and got the diploma as Cuba’s fourth discoverer from the Speleological Society of Cuba and the Cuban Society of Geography.

Nuñez Jimenez passed away in 1998.

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