Law compliance, and prevention and control of illegal activities in the forest sector in Suriname : country assessment preliminary version

Suriname is situated on the northeast coast of South America, and with a land area of just 16.4 million hectares, is one of the smallest countries on the continent. The population totals 480,000, with nearly 70 percent living in the capital city. Paramaribo and the surrounding district. Meanwhile, a quarter of the population lives in smaller settlements along the coast and about 70,000 people from tribal maroon1 and indigenous communities live in relatively small- to medium size settlements and villages in the hinterlands. More than 90 percent of the country is covered with natural vegetation, 80 percent of which is forested. The country's productive forest area was estimated to cover about 4.8 million hectares in 2005. Experts doubt that the forests in the southern part of the country will be used for commercial wood production any time soon because of the area's irregular topography and lack of infrastructure. However, the people in the hinterlands use these areas to meet their subsistence needs for forest products. Unlike most South American countries, Suriname is not losing its forest cover, and no regular statistics on deforestation are published. In the past, forest clearings occurred during very specific periods. The Forest Service (LBB) was established by law in 1948. The LBB had gradually lost its operational capacity in core areas during the 1980s, and most timber production went unrecorded. Its current legal mandate to regulate forest management comes from the Forest Management Act of 1992. The LBB now has the legal responsibility for the management of all forests, including nature reserves, and the specific goal of: 'sustainable forest management for the benefit of the (national) community.'