Historical Analysis of EPI in Colombia (2006-2014): Challenges on Environmental Information

Abstract

The use of environmental indicators has been established as a way of addressing different variables and objects of analysis, including the complexity of biodiversity and ecosystems along with human wellbeing. Since 2006, the Environmental Performance Index has been used, ranking countries according to status of various indicators. Colombia has been included in all evaluations with variable results in its ranking. We examine some aspects that vary through the years in terms of the index and the performance of Colombia in evaluations from 2006 to 2014, mostly because Colombia had excellent scores at the beginning of the index measure, but decrease notoriously in the last ones that have made. We found that the historical evaluation of the EPI had differences in its structure, with a greater reliability on international databases rather than national information, as well as a continuum change of the types of variables used for the indicators. On an international context, Colombia’s ranking variation reflects the differences in sources and accessibility of data. As useful as indexes might be to monitor and manage of resources, it is important to analyse each evaluation as much more than just the best and worst indicators, but rather to look at the sources, types of variables, ad context of each evaluation.