Brownsberg

Brownsberg Nature Park was established in 1969 in northern Suriname, some hundred and thirty kilometres south of Paramaribo, and protects some 122 km² around a lateritic plateau that rises above the surrounding rainforest to about five hundred metres.

Its management is in the hands of a private conservation foundation, not the state, and it is the most visited protected area in Suriname because of its accessibility from the capital. From the edge of the plateau there is a view over Lake Brokopondo, an enormous reservoir created in the 1960s to feed the aluminium industry, which flooded extensive areas of forest and displaced Maroon communities.

The plateau preserves lowland and hill rainforest, with waterfalls on its slopes, and is home to eight primate species, among them the red howler monkey and the spider monkey, as well as a very rich birdlife. Its name refers to bauxite, the mineral that gave rise to the Surinamese aluminium industry, and that same mineral wealth is today its greatest threat: informal gold mining has penetrated the park and its surroundings, with gold extraction using mercury, deforestation and contamination of the watercourses, in a process the authorities have failed to halt.