The Global Environmental Facility (GEF) approved over $18 million to support Suriname in its creation of one of the world’s largest tropical forest wilderness reserves. The funding will support the management of the four million acre (1.6 million hectare) Central Suriname Nature Reserve and create conservation- based economic opportunities such as ecotourism.
“The Suriname project is an outstanding example of the kind of visionary, yet practical, partnership the GEF seeks to support,” said Mohamed T. El-Ashry, CEO and chairman of the GEF. “It underscores Suriname’s initiative and commitment to making conservation part of its economic development strategy, as well as the important role of non-governmental organizations at the community level.”
Part of the forest area within the reserve was formerly targeted by international logging companies, which sought concessions in some 11 million acres.
Suriname harbors more rain forest than all of Central America combined. The Central Suriname Nature Reserve is part of the Guyana Shield, one of the world’s most undisturbed tropical wilderness areas extending across the southern Guianas, southern Venezuela and adjacent parts of Brazil. These forests have at least 75 percent of their original forest cover and many, like Suriname’s, are still in pristine condition, virtually uninhabited and in some places, unexplored. Other tropical wilderness areas are mainly in Africa’s Congo Basin and on the island of New Guinea.
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