- Braamspunt, a crucial sea turtle nesting beach in Suriname, is facing rapid erosion and could soon disappear as climate change impacts and sand mining eat away at it.
- The beach is one of only two major nesting sites for sea turtles in the country, and its imminent loss threatens in particular the survival of leatherback turtles; 90% of the vulnerable species’ local population nests here.
- Mining of sand as a construction material has significantly contributed to the degradation of Braamspunt, impacting not only the local sea turtle population and the broader coastal ecosystem but also the coastal defense of the capital, Paramaribo, against rising sea levels.
- Braamspunt is also subjected to a natural process of drift — the beach once lay farther west, and was moved to its present location by currents — but this process will end if there’s no more sand to move.
BRAAMSPUNT BEACH, Suriname — As little as five years ago, parts of the beach here were 500 meters or wider, more than a quarter of a mile, says Kiran Balrampersad.
“Now,” he says, “there are only 10-12 meters [33-39 feet] left.”
For more than a decade, Balrampersad has guided sea turtle tours on Braamspunt Beach, located on the east bank of the mouth of the Suriname River, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Suriname’s capital, Paramaribo. “I have witnessed erosion taking place at an accelerated rate every year,” Balrampersad tells Mongabay.
Braamspunt is one of the few sandy beaches in Suriname, where sea turtles, including leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), green (Chelonia mydas) and olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea), all threatened species, come to lay their eggs every February to August. The beach’s rapid shrinking, driven by climate change impacts and sand mining, is threatening the species, already under pressure from excessive hunting and habitat destruction.
The rapid erosion of Braamspunt not only threatens these turtles’ nesting success but also disrupts the delicate balance of the marine ecosystems that the animals help sustain. Braamspunt is also important for the coastal defense of Paramaribo against rising sea levels.
A nesting haven is retreating
Braamspunt’s plight isn’t a singular case in the region, research shows. The study by WWF with Dutch research institute Deltares and Delft Technical University documents how turtle nesting beaches in Suriname and neighboring Guyana and French Guiana are undergoing the same phenomenon.
Climate change has become increasingly responsible for that, various studies have shown. Christiaan Huisden, professor and head of the environmental department at Anton de Kom University in Paramaribo, says rising sea levels intensify storm frequency, resulting in waves that move further inshore and cause more erosion inland. A 2020 study outlines how climate change is accelerating erosion of sand beaches in the Caribbean, predicting a loss of 53% in sandy beach land across the region by the year 2100. Other research underlines that rising temperatures significantly decrease hatching success rates in turtles, while disrupting genetic diversity and favoring more female hatchlings.
Michael Hiwat, former marine conservation officer for WWF in the Guianas, says overwash takes place twice a month during spring tide here, flooding sea turtle nests and thereby decreasing hatching success rate for the eggs. WWF and the Suriname government’s Nature Conservation Division (Natuurbeheer) move as many of the nests as they can to safer areas. But because the beach is being reduced to only a low-lying area, there isn’t much higher ground left. The overwash also leads to some nests being washed out to sea, Hiwat says.
A diminishing supply of sand
Climate change isn’t the only driver behind Braamspunt’s shrinking, Hiwat says; sand mining also threatens this critical turtle haven. The most exploited resource globally after water, sand is a staple in the construction industry, with demand for it tripling in the last two decades; in 2023, the U.N. Environment Programme warned the world needed to avert an imminent sand-induced environmental crisis.
Toelsinarain Soekha, owner of construction company N.V. Sarika, says he started mining sand at Braamspunt sometime between 2005 and 2010, when he received his first permit. Another company had begun operating there 25-30 years earlier, he says. Soekha had his permit renewed every three years, until the government imposed a temporary ban on sand mining at Braamspunt in December 2015. In February 2017, news broke that sand mining had resumed at Braamspunt, after the government granted permission to N.V. Sarika, Gebroeders Soebratie N.V., Rock & Dirt Shippers, and Handelmij Dharmsing N.V. to resume their activities.
Several conservation organizations and the tourism sector strongly opposed this decision, calling for an immediate halt to the activity. Soekha says his own operations ended in late 2017.
Rakesh Debisarun, communications officer at Natuurbeheer, says that while the sand mining may have contributed to the current erosion issues, the extent of its impact remains inconclusive. He adds that Natuurbeheer, as the state environmental agency, wasn’t consulted during the permit approval process by the Ministry of Natural Resources, which he says may have been a result of communication lapses or political interests.
“If [Natuurbeheer] had a choice in the matter, we never would have granted permission for sand mining,” he tells Mongabay.
“To this day, it remains unclear how much sand was removed due to mining and how long it took place, thus it is unclear in what exact capacity the mining has contributed to the beach’s disappearance,” says Soraya Wijntuin, oceans coordinator at WWF Guianas. The WWF study indicated that sand mining has exacerbated beach erosion as part of the dynamic beach cycle, the ongoing natural process of change and movement that affects the shape and location of the beach over time.
It’s this latter process, according to Hiwat, that’s another cause of Braamspunt’s current predicament. Until relatively recently the beach wasn’t located where it sits today, having been swept to its current location from farther east. In the 1960s, the beach sat some 90 km (55 mi) east at Wia Wia, a nature reserve, Hiwat says. Currents kept pushing the sand westward, always settling on mud flats, until it settled in its current location. Hiwat says this pattern of drift will end, as there simply isn’t enough sand left due to mining.
“We need to keep in mind that sand mining is permanent removal of the sand,” he says. “Once it has been removed, logically there’s no movement possible in western direction.”
He adds he’s especially concerned about the local population of leatherback turtles, which has decreased by about 98% since 2001, according to data from WWF. He warns that Braamspunt’s disappearance will have an outsized impact on leatherbacks, as 90% of the turtles coming to Suriname nest here, rather than on the other nesting beach of Galibi.
Miquel Garcia, marine conservation program coordinator at the Environmental Awareness Group (EAG) in Antigua & Barbuda, says removing sea turtles from their ecological niches can profoundly impact the environment. Sea turtles play a crucial role in controlling jellyfish populations, which, if left unchecked, can devastate fish populations by consuming fish larvae, disrupting the broader food web and affecting fisheries.
The turtles are also important for the health of ecosystems like coral reefs, seagrass meadows and mangrove forests. Green turtles, for example, help maintain seagrass meadows by grazing, which promotes growth and supports marine biodiversity. The loss of sea turtles can also indirectly harm mangroves, essential coastal defenses against erosion in Suriname. As these ecosystems deteriorate, the rate of coastal erosion could accelerate, endangering nesting sites and compromising coastal protection.
According to Garcia, the situation at Braamspunt underscores the urgent need to explore alternative methods for sand mining that don’t destroy critical ecosystems. Implementing sustainable alternatives, Garcia says, is essential to preserving nesting beaches for sea turtles, maintaining marine biodiversity, and protecting coastal communities from the long-term consequences of erosion and climate change.
Citations:
Spencer, N., Strobl, E., & Campbell, A. (2022). Sea level rise under climate change: Implications for beach tourism in the Caribbean. Ocean & Coastal Management, 225, 106207. doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2022.106207
Maurer, A. S., Seminoff, J. A., Layman, C. A., Stapleton, S. P., Godfrey, M. H., & Burford Reiskind, M. O. (2021). Population viability of sea turtles in the context of global warming. BioScience, 71(8), 790-804. doi:10.1093/biosci/biab028
Banner image: Braamspunt Beach. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons.
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