Category: Suriname

Jaguars in Suriname’s protected parks remain vulnerable to poaching; Vanessa Romo; Monga Bay

In mid-June 2012, a few months after she started monitoring the jaguars inside Brownsberg Nature Park in Suriname, biologist Vanessa Kadosoe saw Amalia for the first time. Through the pictures from a camera trap, she observed the little jaguar cub walking beside her parents, Máxima and Willem Alexander, the monarchs of the jungle until then.

Source: Jaguars in Suriname’s protected parks remain vulnerable to poaching

Commentary: How is an urban development project safeguarding a World Heritage site in Suriname?; Natasha Kate Ward; Caribbean News Now

Suriname – Historic Inner City of Paramaribo

Last year when I went to Suriname for the first time ever, even the worldliest among my friends and family struggled to put the small former Dutch colony on a map. Suriname, along with Guyana to its West and French Guiana to its East, make up the “Guianas” a geographic region in north-eastern South America, considered culturally part of the Caribbean.

Suriname is a fascinating country, boasting spectacular natural and cultural attractions. While it may be the smallest country in South America, it boasts a whopping 95% forest cover — the highest in the world, and its population, a little over half a million, is considered one of the most ethnically and culturally varied in the world.

My colleagues and I were in Suriname to discuss a new development program with national authorities to support the urban rehabilitation of the historic centre of Paramaribo.

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Paramaribo’s old town to get a facelift; Nelson A King; Repeating Islands

Suriname – Historic Inner City of Paramaribo

Caribbean Life News reports that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a US$20 million loan in helping Suriname launch an urban rehabilitation program with focus on Paramaribo’s old town, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002. Nelson A. King reports:

The Washington-based financial institution said on Wednesday that the project seeks to contribute to the socio-economic revitalization of the city’s historic center “in order to attract back residents and businesses to the area; restore its cultural heritage value; reduce traffic congestion; and strengthen the institutional framework for its sustainable management.”

Paramaribo, Suriname’s capital, has 243,556 inhabitants, or 45 percent of the country’s population, the IDB said.

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Central Suriname Nature Reserve; World Atlas

The Central Suriname Nature Reserve protects large areas of tropical forests and rivers and the flora and fauna therein.

5. Description –

In 1998 the government of Suriname and the American nonprofit environmental organization Conservation International came together and created the Central Suriname Nature Reserve by combining three already existing nature reserves in Suriname, Elierts de Haan Gebergte, Ralleighvallen and Tafelberg. Two years later in 2000, the Central Suriname Nature Reserve was designated as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site because of the nature reserve’s impeccable tropical rain-forest ecosystem. Currently, the Central Suriname Nature Reserve spans 16,000 square kilometers (6,178 square miles) of land that is made up of lowland and montane primary tropical rain-forest, as well some sections of the higher elevation areas of the Guiana Shield, which are known as the Guyana Highlands.

4. Historical Role –

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