Suriname: Geography and Environment

Suriname, the smallest sovereign country in South America, lies on the northeastern coast between Guyana and French Guiana. A narrow coastal plain along the Atlantic, parts of which lie below sea level, holds the great majority of the population, including the capital, Paramaribo.

South of the coast, dense Amazonian rainforest covers roughly nine tenths of the country's territory, giving Suriname one of the highest forest cover percentages of any nation in the world. The sparsely populated interior includes rolling hills and, further south, low mountains near the border with Brazil. Climate is tropical throughout, with high humidity and heavy rainfall for much of the year.

Environmental priorities center on maintaining the country's exceptionally high forest cover, which has made Suriname one of the few carbon negative countries in the world, while managing the impacts of bauxite and gold mining on inland ecosystems and waterways. Coastal erosion along the low lying Atlantic shoreline is also an ongoing concern.