PIACI diagnosis - Suriname

Preparation of the original document:

Author: SASKYA WIP

National Coordinator Suriname

2014

Access diagnostics (ENG)

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN ISOLATION OR INITIAL CONTACT IN SURINAME

Indigenous Peoples in Suriname live in several villages spread across the nation in both coastal and remote areas. In terms of area of living, a distinction can be made in the so called “Lower land” Indigenous Peoples and “Upper land” Indigenous Peoples. The “Lower land” Indigenous Peoples live in the coastal area, in the northern part of Suriname whilst the “Upper land” Indigenous Peoples mostly live in the southern part of the country.

The southern part of Sipaliwini in Suriname is the most isolated region in the country and mainly inhabited by the Trio (Tirio or Tareno) and Wayana Indigenous Peoples. In the 70s a process of centralization started, where a few agglomerations were created as Kwamalasumutu in Suriname, and Missao Tiriyo in Brazil. In this period about 60% of the Trio population in Brazil (about 460 persons) lived in and around Missao Tiriyo, remaining (about 350 persons) lived distributed among several small villages along the Paru de Oeste river and in the village called Igarape Cuxare.

The approximated Trio and Wayana area demarcations do not correlate with the existing country borders. The area inhabited and used by the Trio people is concentrated in the south of the Sipaliwini province of Suriname and the northern parts of Brazil; also there is a sub area that reaches into Guyana. In the case of Wayana people their living area entails the southeastern part of the Sipaliwini province of Suriname and parts of the south western part of French Guyana.

Studying data of the Census held in 2012 in Suriname and interviews with relevant actors did not result in official demographic data regarding Indigenous Peoples in remote areas. The data available from the Census gives a general overview of the population amount per resort but does not indicate the ethnicity of the people counted. The total amount of Indigenous Peoples counted in the Census is 20,344. There is no indication of the living areas of these counted Indigenous Peoples and they also have different nationalities, counting 19,282 as Indigenous Peoples with the Surinamese Nationality.

MAPA INTERATIVO

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VULNERABILITIES AND THREATS

Indigenous Peoples in isolation and initial contact can be found in areas of the Amazon regions of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Most of them concentrate in frontier zones, where they live in tropical forests of difficult access to avoid contact with the rest of the society. Isolated Indigenous Peoples survive of forest and/or river resources on an itinerant basis; they take no notice of political frontiers and have no desire to obtain the material goods of modern society. The areas across which they travel are home to an extremely wealthy biodiversity that is currently under pressure due to the expanding agricultural and extractive harvesting frontiers.

Isolated Indigenous peoples are in a critically vulnerable state due to:

  • pressure on their territories and livelihoods as a result of the advancing economic frontier, particularly from hydrocarbon, mining and logging activities, both legal and illegal;
  • their lack of defense against communicable viral or bacterial respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases that have decimated their populations and led to true ethnocide in the past;
  • the fact that they are unable to speak up for themselves and are

    particularly incapable as a group of participating in the decisions that affect them, as a result of their isolation;

  • deficiencies in the legal frameworks and public policy that exist to protect them and the consequent difficulty in implementing measures to ensure their physical, cultural and territorial integrity while investments are sustainably made in the areas that surround their territories.

To this extent, the program will be executed through 5 components:

  1. a regional inter-institutional coordination mechanism supported by national bodies;

  2. a concerted strategic framework that incorporates measures to protect the physical and cultural integrity of these peoples;

  3. an action plan containing territorial protection measures, including legal protection and physical control of the activities developed by external agents in the territories occupied by these peoples and in transboundary areas;

  4. a regional healthcare strategy that includes a technical standard for prevention in health with an intercultural approach, and emergency health systems in the regions inhabited by these peoples;聽

  5. systematized data and knowledge on the situation of Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, and capacity development and commitment to protect them (sustainability of the Regional Strategic Framework).

HEALTH SYSTEM

The healthcare of Indigenous peoples in the border areas of Suriname is being monitored by the Foundation Primary Health Care Suriname or Medical Mission (PHCS/MM). The MM is a private foundation, which was founded out of a cooperation of three religious organizations that jointly provide medical services to the people living in the sparsely populated and difficult to access interior of Suriname. The foundation aims to promote and ensure the physical, mental, social and emotional well-being of the population in the interior of Suriname, all driven by the motive to carry out the Gospel in Word and deed, according to primary healthcare principles. There are strong indications that a serious health gap exist between the interior population and that of the rest of the country. Therefore, the vision of the MM is29:

  • Preventive and curative healthcare must be available and accessible for the whole population of the hinterland;

  • Primary healthcare services of the MM must follow international quality standards;

  • Community participation is strongly stimulated;

  • Responsibilities and tasks should be decentralized as much as possible.

The healthcare policy of MM is based on the Primary Health Care Strategy and has been drawn up with input from the personnel of the foundation. This strategy is mostly based on prevention and less on healing. Some of the policy objectives are:

  • Universal access to care and availability of care based on the need to optimize the target group with basic healthcare;

  • Obligation to equal health opportunities as part of social justice, with supportive mechanisms are available;

  • Community participation in defining and implementing health agendas (Active community participation);

  • Promoting health through health promotion and education;

  • Use of available and affordable technology聽

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