In Suriname there is a community waging a battle to preserve forests using traditional knowledge and technological tools. They are the Saamaka, today estimated at around 60,000 people in the country, who, faced with a rise in incursions into their forests by outside actors linked above all to gold exploitation and commercial logging, have launched territorial mapping and monitoring projects.

The aim is to make visible an efficient system of territorial management in the hands of local communities that has existed for centuries, while also denouncing the changes that are damaging the country's green cover — in order to secure greater environmental commitment from the government and recognition of their territorial rights. This is all the more pressing in light of a series of imminent threats to the country's natural resources, after certain industrial groups set their sights on oil deposits.

Deforestation in Suriname

The Saamaka are one of six communities in Suriname descended from Africans who managed to escape slavery on Dutch colonial plantations. They took refuge in the most remote areas of the forest and in 1762 obtained a peace agreement that recognised their freedom and autonomy. Today the Saamaka community is made up of around 60,000 people and stewards 1.4 million hectares of Amazonian forest, equivalent to 9 per cent of Surinamese territory. For the Saamaka, the forest is the primary source of sustenance, but also a fundamental element of their culture and a space with spiritual and historical value. The loss of green cover affecting Suriname therefore constitutes an attack on their identity and a threat to their survival.

The country is covered 93 per cent by rainforests, with around 14 million hectares of natural forest. This is one of the highest ratios in the world, making Suriname's territory fundamental to the balance of the planet, given that its ecosystems absorb more greenhouse gases than they emit. In recent years, however, the country's forest cover has been shrinking. According to satellite data processed by Global Forest Change, between 2001 and 2025 Suriname has lost around 297,000 hectares of tree cover. Of these, around 164,000 hectares have been classified as permanent deforestation. 

The main causes of this transformation are linked to the expansion of gold mining in the country, which according to the journal Ecological Informatics saw a surge in mines of 522 per cent between 1997 and 2019. The Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Project (MAAP) recently published a report according to which around 89,000 hectares of Suriname's forest were affected by deforestation caused by gold extraction between 2001 and 2024. The other causes of deforestation are linked to commercial logging, the expansion of infrastructure such as roads — which have allowed outside actors to penetrate the most remote areas of the forests — and the expansion of agriculture and industrial livestock farming.

Saamaka activism

In 2007 the Saamaka community won a case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights against the mining and forestry concessions granted by the government within their traditional territory. It was the first crucial milestone in their battle for forest preservation, one that also entailed the recognition of their territorial rights. In the years that followed, these provisions were not fully implemented, depriving the community of the legal tools needed to effectively monitor and manage the forests. Into that void stepped the commercial interests of outside actors linked to gold and timber exploitation, lending further impetus to unchecked logging practices.

In 2025 the Saamaka community took a further step in its environmental battle. It launched the Apaki project, born with the twofold aim of documenting ancestral forest management practices and denouncing external incursions and illegal activities within their territory. The work is based on a constant effort to map protected areas through aerial surveys conducted with non-governmental organisations active in environmental protection and GPS mapping, as well as satellite image analysis and ground patrols to identify anomalies and intrusions. This has made it possible, as reported in an Associated Press feature, to discover logging camps of Chinese origin and abandoned excavators in parts of the forest previously thought unreachable but which, with the development of the new road network, have gradually become less remote.

The government has responded positively to the Saamaka community's project. "Their mapping and satellite monitoring activities can help us intervene where the state alone cannot reach," said John Goedschalk, adviser to the President of Suriname on climate and biodiversity financing, also announcing the creation of working groups with local communities to allow the establishment of protected areas managed by them. The government announced Suriname's commitment to maintaining 90 per cent forest cover and highlighted the fundamental contribution the Saamaka community will be able to make in this regard. On the horizon, however, lies a series of issues that risk calling these commitments into question. Suriname is indeed preparing for an expansion of offshore oil activities, and this could generate new investment in the country, increasing pressure on its territory and natural resources.