Reserva Natural de Surinam Central

The Central Suriname Nature Reserve was established in 1998 by merging three earlier reserves and protects some 16,000 km², around 12 % of the country's area. UNESCO inscribed it on the World Heritage List in 2000.

Its value lies in its scale and its integrity: it is one of the largest blocks of primary rainforest in the world lying entirely within a protected area, with no permanent population, no roads and no extractive activity inside it. It covers the upper basin of the Coppename river and a broad expanse of the Guiana Shield, with a gradient running from the lowlands to nine hundred metres.

Granite inselbergs rise above the forest, domes of bare rock that break through the canopy and hold a specialised vegetation; the best known is the Voltzberg, some 240 metres high, whose ascent offers the classic view over the sea of treetops. The reserve is home to jaguar, tapir, eight primate species, harpy eagle and the Guianan cock-of-the-rock, which nests in the crevices of the inselbergs. Its conservation has been threatened by informal gold mining in the bordering areas and by infrastructure projects.