SURINAM Case Study - A Happy Ending?

 

Whilst some ecologists might argue that you shouldn't put a price on biodiversity, Governments might not be so inclined to sacrifice their resources if they have a way of counting their true value.

First The Bad News

15 September 1995 PRESS RELEASE

SURINAME: FOREST

CONFLICTS WITH MINERS AND LOGGERS REACH FLASH POINTCONFLICT BETWEEN FOREIGN LOGGING AND MINING COMPANIES IN SURINAME HAS REACHED FLASHPOINT. ARMED POLICE GUARDING A CANADIAN GOLDMINE HAVE BEEN SHOOTING AT VILLAGERS TRYING TO GAIN ACCESS TO THEIR FORESTS, WHICH NOW FALLWITHIN THE COMPANY CONCESSION. IN RESPONSE TO THE TAKEOVER OF THEIR LANDS, THE AMAZONIAN INDIANS AND MAROON COMMUNITIES OF THE FORESTED INTERIOR HAVE DECLARED REGIONAL AUTONOMY AND CALLED ON THE GOVERNMENT TO FREEZE THE HANDOUT OF CONCESSIONS UNTIL THEIR LAND RIGHTS ARE RESPECTED.
Surinam's forests are home to a rich array of plant and animal species
Suriname has a population of only 400,000 people. It also contains one of the worlds few remaining large blocks of pristine rainforest, covering 80 percent of the country. Denied land rights and marginalised by development, the indigenous people of Suriname have been caught up in a vicious six-year civil war that devastated the country and brought its bauxite, and aid-dependent economy to near ruin. The deforestation of rainforests and moist deciduous forests is expected to have the most significant impact on biodiversity. FAO estimates that 4.6 million hectares of rainforest and 6.1 million hectares of moist deciduous forest were converted to other land uses each year during the 1980s
A peace was established in 1992, in return for promises to secure land rights and community development. However, instead the Government has embarked on a policy of handing out the country's rich natural resources to foreign companies. Between 1993 and 1995, the Suriname government began negotiations with several Asian timber conglomerates to make 25 to 40 percent of the country's land area (7 million to 12 million hectares) available for logging.
The Canadian Company Golden Star Resources has gained access to rich gold seams in the interior of Suriname. The same company has been causing pollution in neighbouring Guyana, causing over four million cubic metres of cyanide waste to enter the country's main river. The government reportedly plans to sell off these forests at a fraction of their potential value to provide a short-term fix for its desperate economic situation. Besides outright deforestation, the remaining tropical forest resources were under great pressure during the last decade. Logging activities increased in all tropical regions between 1980 and 1990. Of the 5.9 million hectares of tropical forests logged annually, 4.9 million hectares were primary forests.

In many areas of the world, forests shrink as growing rural populations move in to clear new land for agriculture. Such pressures do not seem significant in Suriname. The country's total population of about 400,000 is growing at a rate of less than 2 percent per year.

What threatens Surname's forests is a fiscal crisis: with growing unemployment and a 500 percent annual inflation rate, the government is looking for new sources of income.

Timber consortiums from Malaysia, Indonesia, and China have offered investment packages of more than $500 million (almost equal to the country's total annual gross domestic product) for access to remote, untouched forests in the country's interior. Most of the profits would go to the companies. A recent World Resources Institute (WRI) found that the government would lose between 41 and 86 percent of potential revenue from logging, depending on how honestly companies report their profits.

With suitable management practices on the part of the logging companies and careful planning on the part of the government, the social and economic costs could be reduced, but this is unlikely to happen.

Several of the timber consortiums bidding on concessions have poor environmental track records and a history of unscrupulous business practices. In addition the government's land use planning laws are inadequate and are often ignored. Surname's Forest Service also currently lacks the capacity to adequately monitor 'loggers' compliance with new concession agreements. The government may actually lose money on the proposed deal once the costs of building a monitoring capacity are included.

And the Good News
New Partnership Backs Surname's Forest Protection Efforts

Surname's case illustrates the institutional, economic, and policy failures that can leave forests vulnerable in a number of tropical and temperate countries of the world. International assistance has however stepped in to provide some support and will hopefully encourage the government to look more favourably on its natural resource and to manage it more responsibly and effectively.

If successful it may provide a development model for other countries where cash-strapped governments are contemplating selling off their forests to meet short-term economic needs.
Suriname has created one of the world's largest tropical forest wilderness reserves, and recognition of this by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has resulted in the approval of an $18.33 million project to support the nation's long-term development and conservation.

Conservation International (CI) with a private contribution of $1 million initially set up the Suriname Conservation Foundation. The additional fund will support the management of the 4 million acre (1.6 million hectare) Central Suriname Nature Reserve and create conservation-based economic opportunities.

CI is working with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and local and international non-governmental organisations (which have also provided co-financing for the project) to undertake a biological assessment of the forest reserve which will help establish a management and monitoring system.

Under this project CI also will continue its work to develop Eco-tourism as a major conservation enterprise in Suriname.

"By setting aside this large reserve, Suriname has chosen a new development path more appropriate to the 21st century,"

GEF funding will ensure protection of the reserve for the long term and enable the country to generate income through non-destructive uses of the forest like Eco-tourism and research. Part of the forest area now protected within the reserve was formerly targeted by international logging companies, which sought concessions in some 11 million acres.