Oranjestad, St. Eustatius- On January 1st, 2021, the responsibility for the land registers in Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (BES) was shifted from the island administration to the Kadaster in the Netherlands and the public registers.

This means that all cadastral tasks for the Caribbean Netherlands are now incorporated into a single organization.

PLP Councilman Clyde van Putten says he and his party are not in agreement with the transfer of this important task to The Netherlands. “We want to be responsible for our own cadaster. We can get support from other islands and even The Netherlands, but we are not in agreement with a full take over”, said Van Putten.

Hot patatoe

The issue of the takeover of the local cadastral functions has turned into a hot patatoe, not in the last place because of a lot of flipflopping on the side of Bonaire. Several Executive Councils took a different view point, but did sign what was considered a binding agreement for the transfer.

While the current Executive Council in Bonaire wrote a letter to reverse course, State Secretary Raymond Knops took the position that the transfer was a ‘done deal’, which could not be undone again.

Many people on the islands, both in Bonaire and St. Eustatius, cannot comprehend why the islands would agree to the transfer of a task which is one of the few that will generate quite some income for local government’s coffers.

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