***********************************************

WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Tenth of Suriname to be Off-Limits to Loggers

***********************************************

Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org/

6/18/98

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

In a bold move, the government of Suriname has chosen to establish a

protected nature reserve of some 1.6 million hectares which comprises

one tenth of the country.

g.b.

*******************************

RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: Tenth of Suriname to be off-limits to loggers

Source: Reuters

Status: Copyright 1998, contact source for permission to reprint

Date: June 17, 1998

NEW YORK, June 17 (Reuters) - Surinam said on Wednesday it would turn

a vast tract of Amazon rain forest into a nature preserve, protecting

the virgin jungle from international logging firms.

The Central Surinam Wilderness Nature Reserve will protect more than

6,000 square miles (1.6 million hectares) of rain forest, an area

bigger than the U.S. state of Connecticut and almost 10 percent of the

former Dutch colony's territory.

Surinamese officials made the announcement at a news conference

presided over by actor Harrison Ford, a member of the board of

Conservation International, which secured funding to manage the

preserve.

"This is a revolutionary move on the part of Suriname's leaders,"

Conservation International President Russell Mittermeier said.

"(The Surinamese) are breaking away from traditional and usually

ecologically devastating patterns of economic development that exploit

natural resources," he said.

Malaysian and Indonesian logging companies had been bidding to exploit

the virgin forest, one of the few in the world still totally

uninhabited.

Only about 40 percent of the tropical forest that existed in the world

at the start of the century still stands. An even smaller percentage

has survived in pristine condition, mainly in the upper Amazon,

southern Venezuela, the Guianas, New Guinea and Africa's Congo basin.

Conservation International secured private funding to establish a $1

million trust to cover management costs of the newly protected area.

It will help Surinam develop a strategy for conservation based on

bioprospecting, nontimber forest products, agroforestry and

ecotourism.

"Suriname has established itself as a world leader in biodiversity

conservation," Peter Seligmann, chairman of the environmental

organisation, said. "Other nations can look to Surinam as an example,"

he said.

###RELAYED TEXT ENDS###

This document is a PHOTOCOPY for educational, personal and non-

commercial use only. Recipients should seek permission from the

source for reprinting. All efforts are made to provide accurate,

timely pieces; though ultimate responsibility for verifying all

information rests with the reader. Check out our Gaia Forest

Conservation Archives at URL= http://forests.org/

Networked by Ecological Enterprises, gbarry@forests.org