Suriname promises to protect 90% of the forests, far beyond the global conservation objective

The Government of Suriname has promised to permanently protect 90% of its tropical forests, a movement that says that conservationists have made one of the most ambitious commitments for the climate and biodiversity ever made by an Amazonic nation.

The announcement came during the Climate Week in New York City. Foreign Minister Melvin WJ Bouva delivered the promise on behalf of President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, who took office two months ago.

Suriname has already covered the world’s highest share of forest cover, with around 93% of his country covered in tropical rainforest. The majority of this remains primarily forest by logging, agriculture or mining. Scientists say that Suriname is one of only three countries worldwide that absorbing more carbon dioxide than it is broadcasting a so-called “carbon gutterstone” worth forests are a critical buffer against global warming.

“We understand and accept the immense responsibility of combating more than 15 million hectares of tropical rainforest in a world that sees its forests falling day in day out,” said Geerlings-Simons in comments that have released her office.

The promise is struggling far the worldwide target of the “30×30”-a non-supported goal for countries to protect 30% of the country and the oceans by 2030. It comes weeks before COP30, the UN climate summit that will be organized in Belem, Brazil, in the heart of the Amazonwest.

The government of Suriname says that by the end of the year it will update the laws of nature to create stronger protection for its forests. The new framework could also recognize the ancestral countries of native and chestnut brown peoples – descendants of Africans made to slave who escaped to the rainforest – and wants to expand opportunities in ecotourism and the growing market for carbon credits.

A coalition of Milieudonors has committed $ 20 million to help finance the effort and to support local jobs associated with forest protection.

Conservationists greeted the move as unprecedented for the Amazon, where deforestation has risen again this year despite the international commitments to turn the loss of the forest.

“This determines a new standard for the Amazon region as a whole that has suffered serious deforestation in recent decades,” says Russell Mittermeier, Chief Conservation Officer at Re: Wild, a worldwide non -profit for nature retention.

Suriname’s rainforests host jaguars, giant river motorcycles, tapirs and more than 700 bird species, as well as the striking blue gif dartkikker. Proponents say that keeping such ecosystems intact is vital, not only for local communities, but also for stabilizing the global climate.

Hugo Jabini, a lawyer from Suriname’s Saamaka Maroon Community and a Goldman Environmental Prize winner from 2009, said that the promise will mean little, unless the government tackles the old indigenous and tribal land rights.

“Suriname is the only country in the western hemisphere where indigenous and tribal land rights are not legally recognized,” he told The Associated Press. “Without recognition, the people who depend on the forest – and who are best placed to protect it – cannot really protect it.”

He warned that illegal mining, logging and roadbuilding are already threatening communities, despite the judgments of the international court that Suriname orders to stop concessions. Protecting 90% of the forest, he added, will require international support to create sustainable alternatives to extraction.

Sirito Yana Auma, chairman of the organization of indigenous peoples in Suriname, also warned that the promise without enforcement will be useless. But Auma warned that weak infrastructure, corruption and the temptation of illegal mining efforts undermine.

He said that indigenous communities want to be recognized as legal guardians of the forest.

“To protect our forests, we must be in the forest,” he said. “The best people to do this are the indigenous people and the chestnut people.”