ABSTRACT
Since the European colonization of Suriname in 1650, all land in Suriname has been state-owned. Only those with a land title, i.e. proof of land ownership in the form of a written document issued by the colonial government, were able to legally claim that they had rights to the land (Kambel & MacKay, 2003). The indigenous peoples who had no such titles, but who had collectively used the forest, rivers and creeks for hundreds of years, were not only excluded from the protection of their property, but could also only gain protection if they were willing to accept a form of individual ownership. Since 1996, discussions have taken place in villages across Suriname about indigenous communities’ preferences: individual or collective land rights. In 2007, a formal complaint was filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In November 2015, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the highest judicial body in the Organization of American States (OAS), found that Suriname had violated the human rights of the Lower-Marowijne indigenous peoples and ordered the state to legally recognize and protect their collective lands and resources. In 2006, Lower-Marowijne communities (the KLIM), wanting to develop a land management plan (LMP) to prevent future conflicts, asked the authors to facilitate this process.
