SITUATION ANALYSIS OF THE SMALL-SCALE GOLD ... - WWF

absence of consultation requirements; the violation of their traditional rights to land and
natural resources; the omission of legal protection for forest peoples; the lack of
guarantees for equal benefits from mining profits; and the inadequate compensation
provisions. It is important to note that at the root of this problem is the Suriname
constitution, which lacks a legal framework necessary to recognize the rights of its
Indigenous peoples and Maroons.
Despite the positive changes mentioned above, the draft new mining law continues to be
a poor reflection of reality in the mining fields. For example, there is no provision to
accommodate claims based on tribal customary rights, like those found in the Sela Creek
mining zones. Neither does the law provide clear guidelines on health and safety
regulations for laborers in the gold mines. Moreover, also this law does not provide
adequate means to collect taxes from the more than one thousand machine owners.
Part V - Traditional Rights. With the signing of the Accord for National Reconciliation
and Development in 1992, the government of Suriname formally acknowledged the rights
of Indigenous and Maroon communities to customary settlement areas. The Accord was
careful to specify that sub-soil resources remain the property of the State, in compliance
with article 41 of the Constitution. The Accord did, however, recognize that in some
tribal communities extraction of sub-soil resources such as gold is an integral part of their
productive activities. Therefore, article 10-d states that tribal peoples could request and
secure SSM rights in the economic zones of their customary settlement areas. The
provision is zone-specific, which implies a priority right for customary settlement areas,
similar to the timber concessions that have been granted to Indigenous and Maroon
communities.
Though several attempts have been made to develop projects to resolve this politically
loaded subject, very little progress has been made resolving the basic land rights issues.
In 1993, the Redan Commission tried to convince several communities to accept
suggested demarcation of their settlement areas, but because the claims were so far apart
there was no basis for compromise. For example, in the Apura Region the Redan
Commission was proposing timber concession on the order of 20,000 hectares, while the
Indigenous communities were claiming several million hectares of land. Environmental
organizations (including Amazon Cooperative Team and WWF-Guianas) and human
rights groups have assisted Indigenous and Maroon communities in at least six regions in
preparing land use maps of the customary settlement areas in order to promote
sustainable land use, and/or provide evidence to support the land use claims of these
communities.
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1976 and became a party to the Convention on Biological
Diversity in 1966. As such Suriname is obligated to recognize and respect the rights of Indigenous and
tribal peoples as provided for in both customary international law as well as the international instruments to
which they are bound (IDB 2004). See for more detail: Buursink Consultants. 2002. Diagnosis of Land
Management Issues in Suriname; Kambel, Ellen-Rose and Fergus MacKay 1999 The Rights of Indigenous
Peoples and Maroons in Suriname; IDB 2004. An Overview of Indigenous and Tribal peoples. Suriname.
Paramaribo, Suriname.
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