amounts of nickel, copper, platinum, iron ore

Land use:
arable land: 0%
permanent crops: 0%
permanent pastures: 0%
forests and woodland: 96%
other: 4% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land: 600 sq km (1993 est.)

Natural hazards: NA

Environment - current issues: deforestation as timber is cut for
export; pollution of inland waterways by small-scale mining activities

Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Law of the
Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship
Pollution, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography - note: mostly tropical rain forest; great diversity of
flora and fauna that, for the most part, is increasingly threatened by
new development; relatively small population, most of which lives
along the coast

@Suriname:People

Population: 431,303 (July 2000 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 32% (male 70,871; female 67,466)
15-64 years: 62% (male 137,209; female 131,905)
65 years and over: 6% (male 10,907; female 12,945) (2000 est.)

Population growth rate: 0.65% (2000 est.)

Birth rate: 21.08 births/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Death rate: 5.69 deaths/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Net migration rate: -8.92 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female
total population: 1.03 male(s)/female (2000 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 25.06 deaths/1,000 live births (2000 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 71.36 years
male: 68.71 years
female: 74.14 years (2000 est.)

Total fertility rate: 2.5 children born/woman (2000 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Surinamer(s)
adjective: Surinamese

Ethnic groups: Hindustani (also known locally as "East Indians"; their
ancestors emigrated from northern India in the latter part of the 19th
century) 37%, Creole (mixed white and black) 31%, Javanese 15%,
"Maroons" (their African ancestors were brought to the country in the
17th and 18th centuries as slaves and escaped to the interior) 10%,
Amerindian 2%, Chinese 2%, white 1%, other 2%

Religions: Hindu 27.4%, Muslim 19.6%, Roman Catholic 22.8%, Protestant
25.2% (predominantly Moravian), indigenous beliefs 5%

Languages: Dutch (official), English (widely spoken), Sranang Tongo
(Surinamese, sometimes called Taki-Taki, is