NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

March 15 2002

NEPA and STATIN Release State of the Environment Report

The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) and the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) have released Jamaica’s Environment 2001- Environment Statistics and State of the Environment Report. The report includes a discussion and evaluation of current environmental issues and statistical data relevant to these issues.

The topics covered include human settlements, economy, solid and liquid waste, land and mineral resources, agriculture, forestry and watershed management, biological resources, protected areas, freshwater, coastal zone and marine resources, tourism, energy and transport, air, climate, natural disasters and environmental accidents and environmental policies and actions.

The report is a significant tool in the effort to achieve sustainable development and is expected to play an important role in Jamaica’s presentation to the Rio+10 summit in Johannesburg in August 2002. The summit, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), will be seeking to review the progress toward global sustainability made since the Rio meeting in 1992 and to recognize the efforts at balancing the social, economic and environment agendas of developed and developing countries.

Agenda 21, which arose out of the Rio meeting, noted the need for countries to produce a structured overview of statistical information about the environment. This report fulfills that need and is an expanded version of the State of the Environment Reports that the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (now a part of NEPA), started in 1995.

The publication will be useful for government and non-government agencies that are interested in sustainability as well as for educators, students and media. It is available from STATIN and NEPA.

Contact:

NEPA: Rosemarie Chung, 754-7575, 906-1394

STATIN: