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WORLD RAINFOREST MOVEMENT
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URGENT ACTION 16 February 1996
SURINAME: LOGGING THREAT GROWS AGAIN
ONCE MORE THE HAND-OUT OF LOGGING CONCESSIONS IN SURINAME LOOKS
IMMINENT. LOCAL INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' ORGANISATIONS ARE ASKING FOR
INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT IN THEIR APPEALS TO GOVERNMENT TO FIRST
RECOGNISE THEIR LAND RIGHTS.
After months of deliberations, the Surinamese Government's
special commission reviewing draft contracts granting several
huge logging concessions to foreign companies has finally
submitted one contract to the National Assembly for approval.
The contract, which allegedly grants the Malaysian company,
Berjaya Sdn. Bhd. a one million hectare concession in the eastern
part of Suriname, is being fiercely opposed by the indigenous and
Maroon peoples who inhabit the interior of the country.
The interior peoples are dissatisfied that the Government
continues to give priority to foreign companies while it refuses
to honour promises made to them in 1992 to recognise their rights
to their ancestral territories.
The contract was passed through to the Assembly in mid-January
but in view of the opposition in the interior the Assembly chose
not to accept it immediately and asked for two weeks to consult
with the leaders of the local peoples in the concession area. On
Feruary 6, the Assembly demanded a further extension as the local
leaders had forcefully expressed their opposition to the
contract. Fierce debate now rages in the capital, Paramaribo,
over whether the concession should be granted. Domestic timber
companies have also expressed opposition to the contract since
they claim Berjaya will be granted fiscal benefits that the local
sawmills do not enjoy, thus making them uncompetitive.
Berjaya claims that it has already invested US$20 million in
Suriname and has expressed considerable impatience over the
delays. However, in response to objections raised by the Maroon
and Indigenous leaders, the company has also stated that it will
not log areas where the local communities are opposed to its
presence. A Berjaya spokesperson has been quoted in the press as
stating that if the forest communities in eastern Suriname are
opposed to the logging they would prefer to be granted a
concession further west, perhaps in the area initially slated for
the Indonesian transnational Suri-Atlantic which appears to have
withdrawn its bid for the forests south of Apura.
The Berjaya company has been embroiled in equally heavy
controversy in the Solomon Islands. Last year, after being
accused of bribing government officials and then getting caught
up in a land dispute with the indigenous communities, the company
pulled out and embarked all its machinery for South America. It
is uncertain whether this plant will be sent to Suriname or
neighbouring Guyana, where Berjaya has already secured control
of an existing but unexploited concession previously granted to
local companies UNAMCO and Case Timbers.
Meanwhile the Indonesian logging company MUSA, which has been
operating in Suriname for several years, has also become
embroiled in a land dispute with a local plantation owner having
expanded its milling operations far beyond the small 50 hectare
site it had acquired. Even after a judge concluded that 90% of
MUSA's activities at the site were outside its legal holding,
MUSA refused to pay compensation, leading the courts to seize the
company's machinery, buildings, land and lumber.
The controversy over foreign loggers has gained significance as
Suriname is to hold general elections in only four months.
Opposition members of parliament are contesting the concessions
as they would present any incoming government with an
uncomfortable 'fait accompli.' Efforts to secure the votes of the
interior communities in the upcoming elections have raised the
political temperature.
At the end of January, local human rights, indigenous and
environmental organisations placed a full page advertisement in
the national press opposing the concession as politically
irresponsible, economically unprofitable, environmentally ruinous
and as an affront to the rights of the interior peoples. They
have called on the Government to: postpone the granting of the
concession; legalise the granting of land rights; provide
educational, health and social services in the interior; involve
the local communities in future decision-making; and strengthen
the capacity of government to regulate the timber industry.
ACTION
The Maroon and Indigenous organisations are demanding that their
territorial rights should be fully and legally recognised and
effectively secured before any concessions are granted in the
interior. They also demand that they be fully involved in
negotiations with the companies and allowed to represent
themselves through their own institutions.
The indigenous organisations have asked for international support
for their appeals to Government and invite you to send supportive
faxes urging the Government to delay the hand-out of logging
concessions until the territorial rights of the indigenous and
Maroon peoples are secured.
SEND FAXES TO:
PRESIDENT RONALD VENETIAAN : +597 475266
CHAIRMAN OF NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, JAGGERNATH LACHMON: +597 410364
PLEASE SEND COPIES OF ANY FAXES SENT TO:
OIS FAX: 597 479480
For further information contact: Forest Peoples Programme,
8 Chapel Row, Chadlington, OX7 3NA, England
Tel: 01608 676691 Fax: +44 1608 676743 Email: wrm@gn.apc.org