Suriname
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Suriname is a South American nation located in the north of the continent between Guyana to the west and French Guiana to the east, and bordering Brazil to the south. Its northern coast front the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname is the smallest independent country on South American continent; mostly tropical rain forest with great diversity of flora and fauna that, for the most part, is increasingly threatened by new development; relatively small population, mostly along the coast.
Its major environmental issues include deforestation as timber is cut for export; pollution of inland waterways by small-scale mining activities.
First explored by the Spaniards in the 16th century and then settled by the English in the mid-17th century, Suriname became a Dutch colony in 1667. With the abolition of slavery in 1863, workers were brought in from India and Java. Independence from the Netherlands was granted in 1975. Five years later the civilian government was replaced by a military regime that soon declared a socialist republic. It continued to exert control through a succession of nominally civilian administrations until 1987, when international pressure finally forced a democratic election. In 1990, the military overthrew the civilian leadership, but a democratically elected government - a four-party New Front coalition - returned to power in 1991 and has ruled since; the coalition expanded to eight parties in 2005.
Geography
Location: Northern South America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between French Guiana and Guyana
Geographic Coordinates: 4 00 N, 56 00 W
Area: 163,270 km2 (161,470 km2 land and 1,800 km2 water)
arable land: 0.36%
permanent crops: 0.06%
other: 99.58% (2005)
Land Boundaries: 1,703 km - border countries: Brazil 593 km, French Guiana 510 km, Guyana 600 km
Coastline: 386 km
Maritime Claims: Territorial sea to 12 nautical miles and an exclusive economic zone to 200 nautical miles
Terrain: Mostly rolling hills; narrow coastal plain with swamps. The highest point is Juliana Top (1,230 meters)
Climate: Tropical; moderated by trade winds.
Capital: Paramaribo
Biodiversity and Ecology
The Paramaribo swamp forests, which cover about 8% of Suriname's land area, are characterized by the fact that they grow on almost permanently inundated soils. In general, the resulting forests are shorter in stature, have many specialized species of flora and fauna, and a rather low floral diversity compared to the surrounding terra firma moist forests. The Guianan mangroves are considered some of the most extensive and structurally complex mangrove ecosystems in South America, covering over 14,000 square kilometers (km2)and reaching heights of 35-40 meters (m). The Guyanan savanna ecoregion occupies an area within the Roraima formation distinguished by extensive savannas and schrubby vegetation. The region is traversed by streams with gallery forests, and extensive savannas. In this ecoregion, recurrent fires and extremely poor soils are the most important factor in the advance of savannas in place of forest and the processes that are derived by these changes. More than 50 of the highest tabletop mountains are the remains of the ancient sandstone tableland overlying the even more ancient granitic Guayana Shield. They range from 1,000 to 3,000 meters (m) in elevation. And they are called Tepuis (singular: tepui), a word from the Pemón Amerindians. Many tepuis are graced with dramatic waterfalls, the tallest of which (in fact, the tallest in the world) is Angel Falls dropping 979 meters. The large Uatuma-Trombetas moist forests ecoregion with its evergreen tropical forests, falls in the eastern section of Amazonia. Due to ecoregion wide changing topography and associated climate variations, the ability to support a wide range of species both flora and fauna, elevates this ecoregion to a level of high biological diversity. The Guianan moist forests are one of the largest continuous tracts of relatively pristine lowland tropical rainforest in the world. This ecoregion is characterized by high species richness and local and regional endemism, particularly among the flora, as well as relatively intact ecological processes.
The North Brazil Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) is characterized by its tropical climate. This LME has high levels of nutrients coming from the Amazon and Tocantins rivers, as well as from the smaller rivers of the Amapa and western Para coastal plains. It is bordered by 4 countries: Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname and Guyana.
Protected Areas
The Central Suriname Nature Reserve (CSNR) is a World Heritage Site located in central Suriname, 200 kilometers (km) south west of Paramaribo, in the District of Sipaliwini. Suriname is part of the Guayana Shield a two billion-year-old Pre-Cambrian formation that stretches over eastern Venezuela, Guayana, Suriname and northern Brazil. The reserve constitutes a major and representative proportion of this physical feature. Lying between the Amazonian and Orinoco river basins, it is a complex massif of hard, predominantly proterozoic rock-formations, with low mineral content.
International Environmental Agreements
Suriname is party to international agreements on Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, and Whaling.
People and Society
Population: 481,267 (July 2009 est.)
Age Structure: Median Age: 27.9 years
0-14 years: 27.1% (male 66,603/female 64,035)
15-64 years: 66.6% (male 159,525/female 160,871)
65 years and over: 6.3% (male 13,004/female 17,229) (2009 est.)
Population Growth Rate: 1.103% (2009 est.)
Birthrate: 17.02 births/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Death Rate: 5.51 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Net Migration Rate: -0.26 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Life Expectancy at Birth: 73.73 years
Total Fertility Rate: 1.99 children born/woman (2009 est.)
Languages: Dutch (official), English (widely spoken), Sranang Tongo (Surinamese, sometimes called Taki-Taki, is native language of Creoles and much of the younger population and is lingua franca among others), Caribbean Hindustani (a dialect of Hindi), Javanese.
Literacy: 89.6% (2004 census)
Water
From a hydrographic point of view Suriname is not part of the Regional Amazon System because its territory is not part of the Amazon Basin. However, Suriname belongs to the Amazon Cooperation Treaty (ACT) because of vegetation, more specifically the tropical rain forest ecosystem in and around the Amazon Basin. Estuarine fisheries constitute a significant economic activity from a national point of view, although direct involvement of Suranimese citizens in the fisheries operations can be considered negligible. Annual average rainfall in Suriname is 2,200 mm or 355 km3/year in the country's territory. It is considered that evapotranspiration and evaporation losses represent 49% of this precipitation. Suriname's major rivers flow northward into the Atlantic.
Economy
The economy is dominated by the mining industry, with exports of alumina, gold, and oil accounting for about 85% of exports and 25% of government revenues, making the economy highly vulnerable to mineral price volatility. Prospects for local onshore oil production are good, and a drilling program is underway. Offshore oil drilling was given a boost in 2004 when the State Oil Company (Staatsolie) signed exploration agreements with several Western oil companies. Bidding on these new offshore blocks was completed in July 2006. The short-term economic outlook depends on the government's ability to control inflation and on the development of projects in the bauxite and gold mining sectors, though investment in these projects may slow with the tightening of global credit markets. Suriname has received aid for these projects from Netherlands, Belgium, and the European Development Fund.
GDP: (Purchasing Power Parity): $4.256 billion (2008 est.)
GDP-real growth rate: 6% (2008 est.)
GDP- per capita (PPP): $8,900 (2008 est.)
GDP- composition by sector:
agriculture: 10.8%
industry: 24.4%
services: 64.8% (2005 est.)
Industries: Bauxite and gold mining, alumina production; oil, lumbering, food processing, fishing
Natural Resources: timber, hydropower, fish, kaolin, shrimp, bauxite, gold, and small amounts of nickel, copper, platinum, iron ore
Currency: Surinamese dollars (SRD)
Further Reading
- The CIA World Factbook
- World Wildlife Fund homepage
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
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