Suriname’s Saamaka Tribe Turns to Mapping and Documenting in Effort to Protect the Amazon Rainforest – WTOP News
Saamaka leaders say satellite maps and patrols are documenting illegal incursions as they seek formal recognition of 154,000 hectares of lost tribal forest.
- Saamaka communities in Suriname launched Apaki, a forest-mapping initiative named in November 2025, using satellite images and GPS technology to document traditionally protected lands and strengthen their case for government recognition of their ancestral forest management system.
- Expanding gold mining and logging are encroaching deeper into Saamaka territory and the Amazon rainforest, pushing into previously inaccessible areas and threatening the traditional forest management system that clans have governed for generations.
- Nearly two decades after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered Suriname to recognize collective land rights in 2007, Saamaka leaders say key parts of the ruling remain unimplemented, leaving communities without legal authority to control development on their territory.
- Hugo Jabini, managing director of the Association of Saamaka Communities , reported receiving death threats earlier this year after communities challenged a gold-mining concession near a protected forest area, prompting him to increase security precautions.
- John Goedschalk, an adviser to Suriname's president on climate and biodiversity finance, said the government is updating its legal framework to allow community-protected areas to be formally established while maintaining a moratorium on new mining concessions.
16 Articles
16 Articles
Suriname’s Saamaka tribe turns to mapping and documenting in effort to protect the Amazon rainforest – WTOP News
TUTUBUKA, Suriname (AP) — Deep in Suriname’s Amazon rainforest, Navaldo Vola hacked through thick vegetation with a machete, leading a group of Saamaka men up a forested mountain in sweltering heat and swarms of horseflies. Halfway up, they found a massive abandoned excavator fitted with an attachment designed to tear down trees. The discovery came...
Suriname's Saamaka tribe turns to mapping and documenting in effo
TUTUBUKA, Suriname (AP) — Deep in Suriname’s Amazon rainforest, Navaldo Vola hacked through thick vegetation with a machete, leading a group of Saamaka men up a forested mountain in sweltering heat and swarms of horseflies. Halfway up,
The Daily Advance
In Suriname's rainforest, Saamaka woodcarvers face the pull of gold mining and logging
In Suriname, the Saamaka people are striving to preserve their traditional woodcarving art, known as tembe. This craft, passed down through generations, is integral to their cultural identity. However, expanding gold mining and logging are drawing men away from villages…
The Toronto Star
My Mother LodeTakeaways from AP’s report on how Suriname’s Saamaka are fighting to protect their rainforest
TUTUBUKA, Suriname (AP) — Deep in Suriname’s rainforest, a group of Saamaka men hacking their way up a forested mountain discovered an abandoned excavator and logging camps in an area
Winnipeg Free Press
Takeaways from AP's report on how Suriname's Saamaka are fighting to protect their rainforest
TUTUBUKA, Suriname (AP) — Deep in Suriname’s rainforest, a group of Saamaka men hacking their way up a forested mountain discovered an abandoned excavator and logging camps in an area they believed should have remained untouched.
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