ABSTRACT
Suriname has many sacred forests, although none is officially recognized. However, many plants are considered sacred, regardless of where they grow. Based on ethnobotanical inventories, a market survey and interviews with traditional healers, the role of the Afro-Surinamese Winti belief in the use, commercialization and protection of sacred plants is discussed here. After centuries of being banned by the church, Winti is now more openly practised in Suriname. It provides an income to many people that collect, prepare or sell plants considered to have magic properties. More than half of the plants sold at the Paramaribo market are employed in supernatural rituals. Maroons, descendants of escaped slaves that live in Suriname's forested interior, are regarded as specialists in Winti and spiritual medicine. Their firm belief in forest spirits includes many taboos that prevent destructive extraction. Trees that house certain spirits are never felled, because the revenge of their ‘inhabitants’ will be dreadful. Some forests are sacred and no harvesting is allowed unless the spirits are paid with offerings and libations. Magic plants are often cultivated, which protects wild populations from overharvesting. With the exception of two species, the commercial extraction of magic plants seems ecologically sustainable. It is questionable, however, whether the belief in sacred plants and animals is strong enough to protect Suriname's forests in the future. Maroons do not have title to their traditional lands, tribal knowledge is threatened by missionaries and urban migration, and their sacred forests are preyed upon by mining and logging companies. Apart from official land rights, a greater respect for indigenous and Maroon culture from the church, the government and multinational companies eager for the country's natural resources, would certainly benefit the survival of sacred forests in Suriname.
