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Suriname - Geography

On the physical plane, Suriname is a part of the Guyana shield. Bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north, the Surinamese coast is a marshland largely transformed by man in polders. Then, advancing into the land, one finds a central plateau, covered with savannas and forests, in the center and south of the country, mountains covered with dense forests.

The ecological and forest diversity in Suriname is determined for the most part by four ecological zones:

1. The young coastal plain 0-4 meter above sea level, consists of swamp clays, mangrove forests, open swamps with vegetation and several types of swamp forest.
2. The old coastal plain 4-11 m above sea level, consists of swamp clays and sand ridges covered with grass and lush swamps, swamp forests, dryland forests and large areas of peat swamps.
3. The savanna belt 10-100 m above sea level, a plain consisting of bleached quartz sands and loam, dryland and swamp forests, and dry to very wet grass and srub savannas.
4. The interior up to 1230 m above sea level, rugged terrain consisting of rolling hills on the ancient Guiana Shield covered with tropical rain forest, interrupted by marsh forests along rivers and creeks. Here and there granitic inselbergs and mountain ridges rise above the dense forest cover.

The highest point is the Wilhelmina Gebergte (1,286 meters). The equatorial climate, rainy and warm (more than 2 m of rain per year, 26 ° C of average annual temperature) explains the density of the hydrographic network. The shield contains various mineral deposits, the most important being the enormous deposits of bauxite located in contact with the coastal plain. The dense forest covers 85% of the territory.

Suriname has a land area of 163.820 square kilometers. Commercial agriculture and manufacturing are confined to the coast, which is inhabited by 90% of the population although it accounts for only 10% of the total land area.

Most of the bauxite mining takes place in the old coastal belt, but this will change as current reserves at these locations are depleted in 2006. New mines are being developed in the interior. Gold mining takes place further inland, mostly in the "greenstone belt," a geological formation that runs from Goliath Berg in the northwest to more remote mining sites along the Lawa river in south-east Suriname. This geological formation covers an estimated 5 to 10% of the land area.

Timber extraction was traditionally confined to the "forestry belt," a 10-40 kilometer wide girdle that runs east-west between the coastal area and the interior zone. A well-developed road network cuts through the forestry belt estimated at 1.4 million hectares, of which 600.000 are suitable for timber extraction. This situation is changing too. Foreign investors are now developing techniques to move further south and extract timber from locations that were not considered economically viable.

Of the total 16.4 million ha of land in Suriname, 1.5 million ha are considered suitable for agriculture. As noted above, the coastal plain area is characterized by low-lying land (0-4 meter above sea level) with a level topography and fertile heavy clay soils interspersed with sand and shell ridges. As the Dutch discovered during the colonial period, many locations in the coastal plain are very suitable for agricultural production when drained. The soils of the interior, on the other hand, have a shallow humus layer, and are less fertile and access is difficult and costly. The interior, however, is the setting for shifting cultivation practices by the Indigenous and Maroon communities.

Information on land utilization in the interior, where root crops, dry land rice and oranges are cultivated, is not available. Although no exact figures for the areas under cultivation and the amount of fallow land on reserve are available, along the middle-Suriname river alone shifting cultivation may account for an area of 50000 hectares or more.

According to the 1981 census approximately 120000 ha was under cultivation in the coastal plain. In those days about 65000 ha was earmarked for annual crops while rice was by far the most important commodity. Some 61400 ha was devoted to rice alone. This situation has changed dramatically. Wageningen is barely surviving and needs a major restructuring and investment program. Approximately 30000 ha -- about half the area of 20 years ago -- is now in cultivation for rice. Semi-annual corps amount for about 3000 ha of which banana covered 2000 ha.

Although there was an increase in the area in production since 1981, with the closing of the banana plantation these figures will have declined significantly. Acreage under multi-annual crops account for 7300 ha of which palm oil trees covered 2800 ha, coconut 1260 ha and oranges 1860 ha. Again, with the closing of the palm oil plantations these figures will have declined significantly. Efforts are now being made to revive the palm oil plantation in Patamacca. Pasture land is estimated at 30000 ha, but again this figure will have changed and may have even increased.