"One of the world's few remaining large blocks of
pristine rainforest--covering 80 percent of the South American
country of Suriname--is up for sale. 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
government reportedly plans to sell off these forests at a fraction
of their potential value, and likely at considerable future
environmental and social cost, to provide a short-term fix for its
desperate economic situation.
"As of December 1995, none of these
agreements had been signed, however, and considerable controversy
continues in the National Assembly.
"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. Annual deforestation during the 1980s averaged just 0.1
percent, one eighth of the average rate in the tropics during this
period.
"What threatens Suriname'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 to offset declining revenues
from its bauxite mining industry, currently the major source of
export earnings. 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) study on forest policy in
Suriname found that the government would lose between 41 and 86
percent of potential revenue from logging, depending on how honestly
companies report their profits.
"This offer of economic relief comes with hidden social and
environmental costs. The forest areas proposed for logging
concessions are inhabited by thousands of indigenous people who
make a subsistence living within the forest. Experience in other
countries suggests that many of these people would lose their homes
and their way of life if tribal lands are opened up to such
development.
"Suriname's forests are also home to a rich array of plant and animal
species. A consortium of conservation and pharmaceutical interests is
exploring Suriname's little-studied forests, looking for wild species
useful in combating cancer and other diseases. Large-scale logging
puts biodiversity at risk and forces the forfeiture of other
benefits, including the potential for ecotourism development, a
major source of revenue in nearby countries with rainforests, such
as Costa Rica and Belize. Logging would give rise to other
environmental costs, for example, the siltation of watersheds,
changes in local climate, and soil erosion--a particular risk given
that much of the forest concessions are located in areas with hilly
terrains."
