Brief synthesisThe First Coffee Plantations in the Southeast of Cuba is a cultural landscape illustrating colonial coffee production from the 19th to early 20th centuries. It includes not only the architectural and archaeological material evidence of 171 old coffee plantations or cafetales, but also the infrastructure for irrigation and water management, and the transportation network of mountain roads and bridges connecting the plantations internally and with coffee export points. Individual plantations exist in varying states of preservation from the restored museum of La Isabelica coffee plantation farm to plantation ruins that are no more than archaeological sites. Additional potential threats to the site are the possible effects of climate change on coffee plantations, particularly drought. AuthenticityThe cafetales within the inscribed area illustrate a rich and complete history of an era of agricultural industry with significant material cultural.