Country Comments

Suriname is an incredibly biologically rich country. It’s modest population size and consumption per citizen creates a very sustainable model for others. The UN reported the country is 93 percent covered by forest, which acts as a massive carbon sink; in other words, all those trees capture, or suck in, harmful carbon dioxide gas removing it from the atmosphere. It is committed to maintaining this forest cover but says “significant international support is needed for the conservation of this valuable resource in perpetuity.” Less carbon dioxide means less warming. Suriname stated as far back as 2014 that it had a carbon negative economy; that means that any global warming gasses it does produce, are offset by the vast forests which absorb those gasses. (1)

The country’s half million citizens primarily live along its coast which has experienced extensive erosion and has suffered damage from heavy rainfall and flooding and deforestation is a concern with a growing number of timber concessions issued by the government to foreign corporations. The government has been elevating the importance of women’s health and gender equality which is written in to its constitution. Total fertility rates per woman have dropped from as high as six children in the 1970s to under 2.5 children today. If the government can continue to empower women and provide more and better access to reproductive healthcare, Surname could remain sustainable for many many decades.

(1) https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/01/1056422