Curaçao Environmental Statistics Compendium 2015

Introduction

The demand for environment statistics is increasing in tandem with the ongoing environmental
challenges faced by modern societies, such as population pressure, energy issues, sustainable
development and climate change. The environment is ever more present in public policies and
development plans. With its many islands and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the Caribbean
is no exception, and neither is Curaçao.

The realization that human wellbeing and development depends on the environment has led to an
increasing emphasis on environmental and sustainability concerns (e.g. the 2013 report on Strategies
for Sustainable Long Term Economic Development1 and the National Development Plan Curaçao
2015) on which decisions and actions need to be taken. Of paramount importance to these actions is
the regular production of environment statistics of the highest quality. These statistics portray key
information about the state of the environment and its changes through time. Furthermore, they give
information to organizations, students and the public, and can be used as input and support for factbased
policymaking. As in other developing countries and SIDS, environment statistics represent a
new and emerging domain which is typically endowed with limited (technical, financial and human)
resources and is challenged by an institutional setup and inter-institutional coordination that are still
in development.

The Compendium is structured in 7 sections:
1. Environmental conditions and quality
2. Environmental resources and their use
3. Residuals and waste
4. Extreme events and disasters
5. Human settlements and environmental health
6. Environment protection and management
7. Tourism

Publication Curaçao Environmental Statistics Compendium 2015