PARAMARIBO – Saramaccans who are united in the VSG on Wednesday delivered petitions at the Office of the President and the National Assembly, as they no longer want the trees in their area to be cut down.

They did not meet the president but the director of General Affairs. In March 2023 the VSG decided to once against defend human rights and the forest. A new road that is over 42 kilometers long was created by lumberjacks without the consent of the Saramaccan tribe as is required by the verdict of the Inter American Court. At the end of 2023 about 376 hectares of forest had been cut down. The new road which is known as the Palmeirasweg, has exposed a section of the forest that had remained untouched. The VSG is urging local and international communities and organizations, that fight for the right of the Indigenous communities to support them and to pressure the Surinamese government into executing the verdict of the Inter American Court of Human Rights. They also demanded that the cutting down of trees along the Palmeirasweg be stopped…[+]