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Conservation as integral part of sustainable
development in Suriname
The establishment of the Central
Suriname Nature Reserve will be a cornerstone of Suriname's
commitment to conservation-based development and gives the
country a new leadership role in global biodiversity
conservation. Conservation International and the government of
Suriname will look for new partnerships with the corporate
sector to generate environmentally friendly alternatives for
development and to create a specific policy to promote
investments in this. The encouragement of new investments in
the private sector is one of our biggest challenges in de
years to come. The following is a non-exhaustive list of
possibilities that exist for sustainable development in and
around the Central Suriname Nature Reserve.
Nature tourism
Suriname has tremendous nature tourism potential, and, in
fact, was one of the first countries to carry out successful
rain forest tourism in the 1970s. The new Reserve should help
the country re-establish this sector and tap into the rapidly
growing international nature tourism market, which is
currently estimated at $ 200 billion. Several countries in the
Caribbean have already been successful in developing
nature-based tourism, notably Costa Rica and Belize.
Suriname has major nature tourism attractions, including large
tracts of rain forest wilderness, outstanding coastal
ecosystems, and cultural attractions. The country's unusual
mix of African, Asian, European and native Amerindian cultural
elements as well as the Bushnegro cultures of the interior
contribute to Suriname's enormous nature tourism potential.
These attractions, and a close proximity to the large North
American market, offer significant opportunities for Suriname
to capitalize upon its competitive advantage over other
tropical tourism destinations.
"Non-timber forest products"
The potential of non-timber forest products has only recently
been tapped in Suriname. These include latexes, resins,
tannins, fibers, and oils of various kinds for personal care
products.
Community artisanry
Small-scale timber utilization for local use and for high
quality value-added products such as furniture or indigenous
art has considerable appeal in Suriname. The woodcarving
skills of the Bush Negroes, who were brought to Suriname from
Africa, have enabled them to produce some of the finest wood
products in the Americas. At this time, there is very little
marketing of these products from Suriname, but there is
definite potential for both high- and low-value tourist
souvenirs, as well as for export. The Amerindian communities
of Suriname's coast and the far interior are also skilled
artisans who work mainly with cloth, beads, seeds and other
forest products, and their handicrafts could readily be
marketed to tourists as well. As with non-timber forest
products, community artisanry is unlikely to generate major
foreign exchange, but could be quite significant to local
communities.
Bioprospecting
Bioprospecting is the exploration of biodiversity for
commercially valuable genetic and biochemical resources.
Conservation International has been working on a
bioprospecting program with the Saamaka and Tareno (known in
scientific literature under the name of Tirio) peoples of
Suriname for the past eight years. Bioprospecting offers
opportunities for working with large companies, in this case
the pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers-Squibb, while at the
same time providing employment, an increase in local
technological capacity and funding for community development.
Another benefit of bioprospecting is a more profound knowledge
of phyto-medicine, local cures used in perhaps just one or two
villages that have potential relevance to the entire country.
Such cures are likely to be important for tropical diseases
such as malaria and leishmaniasis that are of direct concern
to tropical countries like Suriname, but of less interest to
major international pharmaceutical companies with their
largely northern markets. Finally, bioprospecting projects can
also help Suriname tap into the growing international market
for herbals.
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