In Guyana and Suriname, offshore oil and environmental interests clash

Both in Suriname and in Guyana, the president has a very strong constitutional mandate as head of state and government.
Although Guyana has been praised for its forest conservation initiatives, its efforts have been clouded by corruption and an increased interest in offshore oil exploration.
In Suriname, the government has embraced forest conservation as a development principle, while still pushing for offshore oil drilling.

Both Guyana and Suriname have hybrid republican/parliamentary electoral systems that reflect their colonial heritage. In Guyana, the president is elected by a first-past-the-post outcome that sums the votes for candidates of his/her party standing for election to the National Assembly (i.e., plurality of votes). In Suriname, the president is elected either by a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly or by a simple majority in the People’s Assembly, which is composed of all members of the National Assembly, as well as the elected members of district and local legislatures. In both countries, the president, once elected, has an exceptionally strong constitutional mandate as head of state and head of government.

In Guyana, major parties all trace their foundation to historical figures who ruled as authoritarian leaders, including Forbes Burnham, the founder of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), and Cheddi Jagan, who led what would eventually be the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C). The founders are long dead, but their parties have stayed relevant because they have created institutional organisations that span all levels of the state.

Guyanese politics are effectively divided along ethnic lines, with the PNCR primarily representing Afro-Guyanese, who make up around thirty per cent of the country’s population, while the PPP/C mostly represents Indo-Guyanese, who account for around forty per cent. The PPP/C governed Guyana for 23 years (1992–2015), and at least some of its governments were lauded for leadership on environmental issues, particularly climate change and forest conservation. Nonetheless, the extended time in power led inevitably to voter fatigue fuelled by corruption scandals, and the party lost power when the PNCR formed a coalition with a dissident party, Alliance for Change (AFC), and won a narrow majority in the National Assembly.

The 2022 election returned the PPP/C to power, but only after the incumbent (David Granger) tried to stay in office, allegedly by manipulating the recount of a close election. Democracy prevailed, but the election and its aftermath revealed a polarised society at a critical moment in its history, when billions of dollars flowing from offshore oil platforms will provide whoever is in government with unprecedented economic resources.

It appears that Guyana, and most likely Suriname, have won the oil lottery with the discovery of world-class offshore oil and gas reserves on their continental shelf. The discovery provides these countries with a unique opportunity to invest in sustainable industries, if they do not succumb to the so-called “natural resource curse” and squander their endowment on unviable projects driven by corrupt leaders. Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto. Copyright: nielubieklonu

Surinamese politics has been dominated by Desiré Bouterse, a controversial politician who made his mark in Surinamese politics when he led a military coup in 1980, followed by a decade of de facto rule marked by violent incidents, including the massacre of political dissidents (1982) and of leaders of a Maroon separatist faction (1986). He remained active in politics, in part to maintain his judicial immunity, and organized the Nationale Democratische Partij (NDP), which governed the country between 2010 and 2020. President Bourse failed in his attempt to win a third term when he was finally forced to answer for his crimes and sentenced to prison. As of May 2024, however, he was a fugitive of justice, and his whereabouts were unknown.

During the Bouterse era, Suriname aligned with Venezuela and China and, unsurprisingly, made few commitments towards biodiversity conservation and no meaningful steps to recognise Indigenous rights. Before his administration, the country was governed by the Nationale Partij Suriname (NPS), a party associated with the country’s Maroon ethnic groups, which created the Central Suriname Reserve.

The current president (Chan Santokh), who is affiliated with the Vooruitstrevende Hervormings Partij (VHP), a party that is traditionally affiliated with the country’s Indonesian community, has embraced forest conservation as a development principle and has taken steps to monetize forest-based REDD+ credits via the jurisdictional approach to carbon markets. Like his counterpart in Guyana, President Santokh is an unabashed supporter of the exploration and exploitation of the country’s offshore oil resources.

Banner image: Aerial view of Brownsberg Nature Park in Suriname. Image by Rhett A. Butler.