Officials in Suriname are trying to cancel a controversial agribusiness contract that could result in the clearance of over a hundred thousand hectares of Amazon rainforest, risking the country’s carbon-negative status. In 2024, the agriculture ministry partnered with a private company to develop 113,465 hectares (280,378 acres) of rainforest for industrial agriculture in the northwestern district of Nickerie. Although development wasn’t immediately carried out, the legal framework remains in place and has allowed clearing to begin in recent months. “This is not just a local issue. This is a regional issue because of the role rainforests play on the continent,” John Goedschalk, a climate advisor to Suriname’s president, told Mongabay. “The continued deforestation in the Guiana Shield endangers access to water for people all the way to Argentina.” The land is being developed through a public-private partnership between the Ministry of Agriculture and Suriname Green Energy Agriculture N.V., a private company working in agriculture and bioenergy. The company began clearing the forest despite not receiving permits from the National Environmental Authority (NMA), government officials said in internal emails reviewed by Mongabay. The area almost completely overlaps with logging concessions regulated by multiple-use and sustainability regulations designed to protect primary forest. The company has also hired Mennonites, members of a conservative Protestant denomination, to work on the land, reigniting fears that the religious group will establish large farming communities that rapidly expand into forested areas, as has happened in other parts of the region. Suriname Green Energy Agriculture and the agriculture…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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