TWO PROblems that suriname has in trying to create environmental sustainability and global partnerships.
An Issue Regarding Environmental Sustainability
The major industry in Suriname is agriculture, and with agriculture comes a number of issues regarding the environment. A few of these issues include deforestation to make room for crop land, the use of growth regulators and pesticides that pollute soil and surface water, and the use of inadequate dumps. Although Suriname is geographically 90% forest, their is a major concern of the amount of tree removal to make way for fields and food processing plants. The fear is that if kept unregulated, the deforestation of Suriname could reach dangerous levels. The use of pesticides and growth factors on crops is another concern. Unregulated spraying has lead to increased levels of polluted soil and surface water. But regulation on this topic is difficult because the prevention of using these chemicals could impact Suriname's economy from a dramatic loss of crop revenue. Finally, in both rural and urban areas the use of inadequate and unregulated dumping has lead to concern. Suspicion has arose that suspects these dumps to contribute to Suriname's increased levels of water and soil pollution. A solution needs to be implemented that corrects these issues without destroying Suriname's main source of income. What's a possible solution? There are things that can be done that will decrease Suriname's level of pollution while still maintaining the important activities that often are a cause of this pollution. The agricultural industry, for example, does not need to suffer in order to decrease the level of pollutants it is creating. In the United States crop revenue has dramatically increased with the use of hybrid crops, improved agricultural technology, and non-chemical fertilizer use. Furthermore, there has been no need to increase the amount of land area to accomplish this. By improving the crop productivity there is more food with less land use. If Suriname could implement these new technologies in their own industry, they could see the same revenue without resorting to forestation. This can be done by giving tax credits to those that use these technologies and agricultural loans to purchase equipment and fertilizers that could ultimately improve their crop yield. In address to Suriname's use of growth promoting chemicals and pesticides, non toxic, biological pesticides and fertilizers could be used. Governmental policy would have to be established and enforced that promote the use of these natural, yet effective products. Finally, to address the issue of inadequate dumps. If regulated and controlled dumps could become less dangerous to the environmental welfare. Again this would require local or national government intervention with rules and regulations. Also, government regulated dumps could be established. The solutions here do exist. There are alternative means to doing things that have the same results with less of an environmental impact. It really comes down to requiring or promoting the use of these methods by local or nation governments. |
An Issue Regarding Global Partnership
Politically speaking Suriname has been very unstable within the last few years. A governmental overthrow by a military coup in 1980 has lead to very negative relations between Suriname and many of its preexisting allies. Furthermore, the leader of this military coup, Desi Bouterse, who is now president of Suriname, is wanted in the Netherlands for murder and drug trafficking. So needless to say, Suriname doesn't have the best global partnership. Empirical data supporting this is the percentage of the gross national income that derived from foreign aid. It has been lingering around 1 to 2 % in the past decade or so. To make matters even worse, because Suriname is so new and all previously existing ties are lost, the world has little knowledge of Suriname. This ultimately leads to no interest in business on the global and private sector. So what can be done to amend Suriname's reputation and allow it to receive developmental assistance? The Solution is not easy nor will it be immediately effective. What's a possible solution? Suriname needs to repair the broken trust and reputation it acquired from its political unrest nearly 30 years ago. Suriname has done as much as it can to fix its relations, but few nations want to do business with the country. What Suriname needs to do is provide what support it can for more underdeveloped countries than itself. By doing "good business" with underdeveloped countries this can form relationships that can eventually lead to relationships that could ultimately benefit Suriname. Suriname should focus its attention on countries that could be helped that also have core nations as allies. These allies could then turn around and help Suriname. Sort of like making friends with the rich kids by making friends with their poor cousins. Like I mentioned earlier, this is not a quick fix. However, Suriname needs to become known on a global scale in order to receive any kind of business or foreign aid. This solution will eventually lead to a good reputation for Suriname and more countries would be willing to do business with "good people." |