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Saturday 28 November 2020

Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance (DCNA):
First virtual board meeting a fact

fective way to support pro- work provides in terms of its implementing a strategy
tected area management regional and international which will help foster the
organizations in the Dutch lobby on behalf of the con- development of sustain-
Caribbean, especially in servation organizations in able tourism for the islands,
light of the significant chal- the Dutch Caribbean. enabling the Dutch Carib-
lenges brought about by bean to emerge from the
the global Covid-19 pan- The conservation network, challenges brought about
demic. Park Management provides support to the by the Pandemic with a
KRALENDIJK, BONAIRE — Usually, DCNA Board Meet- Organizations also had Protected Area Manage- greater focus on green
The Board of the Dutch Ca- ings are held twice a year, the opportunity to update ment Organizations on all and blue economies. Aside
ribbean Nature Alliance with spring meetings being each other on some of the six islands of the Dutch Ca- from conservation manag-
recently held their online held in the Windward and challenges and successes ribbean: Aruba National ers and the various experts
Board Meeting in a virtual fall meetings being held in the parks are experienc- Parks Foundation Aruba, of the Board of DCNA, ob-
session, making decisions the Leeward Islands. How- ing considering the cur- STINAPA Bonaire, CARM- servers from
and discussing strategies ever, due to the ongoing rent global situation. Vari- ABI Curacao, STENAPA St. World Wild Fund for Nature
crucial to the ensuring of COVID-19 pandemic, the ous governance decisions Eustatius, the Saba Con- the Netherlands (WWF-NL),
the continuation of the Board Meeting was held in were also taken including servation Foundation and the International Union for
conservation management virtual setting. decisions related to finan- the Sint Maarten Nature the Conservation of Na-
activities executed by the cial good-governance, the Foundation. Another criti- ture (IUCN-NL) and Bird-
Park Management Organi- The Board meeting was disbursement of the Con- cal component discussed Life Netherlands also par-
zations of all six islands of critical for discussing and servation Trust Fund and during the Board Meet- ticipate in DCNA Board
the Dutch Caribbean. strategizing on the most ef- the support the DCNA net- ing is the importance of Meetings.q

Central Bank of Aruba (CBA):

Consumer confidence remains pessimistic

Results for the third quarter of 2020

ORANJESTAD — In the wake of the second CO-
VID-19 pandemic wave, consumers felt slightly
more pessimistic as the consumer confidence
index inched down by 0.2 index point to 91.8
during the third quarter of 2020 (Chart 1) .

By the end of the third quarter, top of mind con-
sumer concerns were the worsening economic
conditions (87 percent) and the financial posi-
tion of the government (84 percent), followed
by their employment opportunities (72 per-
cent). More than two-thirds of consumers (71
percent) indicated that they were still worried
about their personal health, whereas 68 per-
cent of consumers reported that they did not
have trouble in meeting their basic needs. Most
consumers perceived their household’s finan-
cial situation (60 percent) to have worsened, in-
creasing 5 percentage points from the previous
quarter (55 percent).

In the third quarter of 2020, the present situation
index remained unchanged at 90.6, while the
future expectation index rated 92.8, down from
93.3 in the previous quarter. In comparison to the
second quarter, consumers were slightly more
pessimistic about the future. Hence, almost 41 buying a car was not suitable. About 75 per- staying constant in the third quarter.
percent of consumers expected the impact of cent of consumers indicated that taking out a
the COVID-19 pandemic to last between 1 to loan was not appropriate, while close to 70 per- More information on the Consumer Confidence
2 years, and 35 percent of respondents antici- cent reported that going on vacation or taking survey is available on CBA’s website (https://
pated it to last for more than 2 years. In the third out a mortgage was unsuitable. As a result, the www.cbaruba.org/).q
quarter, 79 percent of consumers reported that consumer purchasing habit index stood at 92,