Of all the New World Maroons who struggled to forge independent communities in opposition to slavery and the harshness of plantation life, only the Maroons of south-central and southeastern Suriname continue on as culturally and politically distinct and viable entities through the present day. The Surinamese Maroons still live in relatively thriving independent communities in traditional tribal territory. Elsewhere in the Americas, Maroon societies were either destroyed or became integrated into the culture and society of the larger ‘host’ nation. (Aonghas St-Hilaire, in «Global Incorporation and Cultural Survival: The Surinamese Maroons at the Margins of the World-System»)
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The Saramaka people are one of the largest Maroon tribes, amounting to 20'000, living around one of the main watercourses in Suriname.
After discovering that there territory is given - bit by bit - to logging and mining companies. There are no environmental laws and Indigenous and Maroon rights are not in any way legally guaranteed.

After the Saramaka seek the protection of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Court in Costa Rica will deal with that case in the first week of May 2007.

This is the first time that either Indigenous peoples or Maroons from Suriname have challenged Suriname’s failure to recognize and respect their land rights in an international human rights body and, if successful, may represent a precedent that all other Indigenous peoples and Maroons can benefit from.

Help, to preserve their cultural heritage and pass it on to future generations – to preserve an important part - not only for them, also for the whole world. Who, if not the forest people, are interested in a sustainable treatment of there environnement.

If they win (the case) – we all win (an important part of our natural recourse of the «green lung»)!