Demonstrators holding banners in front of the Surinamese embassy in Brazil
protesting Suriname's pro-whaling position.

By Ivan Cairo
Caribbean Net News Suriname Correspondent
Email: ivan@caribbeannetnews.com
 
PARAMARIBO, Suriname: Activists from Greenpeace and other environmental groups held a demonstration Thursday in Brazil and Chile against Suriname’s pro-whaling voting at the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The activists are urging the Suriname government to start voting for the whales instead of for those who are hunting them for commercial reasons.

During the protest in front of the Suriname embassy in Brasilia and at the venue of this month’s IWC-meeting in Santiago, Chile, demonstrators were holding banners calling on Suriname “not to shame Latin-America” and to “vote for the whales”. Currently this Caricom member state is the only country in South America that is cooperating with Japan to end the decades-long moratorium on commercial whaling. In Brazil protesters presented a petition to the Surinamese embassy, denouncing the country’s position on commercial whaling.

A Greenpeace activist hands over a petition to an official of the Suriname embassy in Brazil during protest urging the Suriname government not to support Japan in its bid to resume commercial whaling.

In an interview with Caribbean Net News, Greenpeace activist Farah Obaidullah, maintained that the Surinamese government has no plausible explanation why it is voting to resume commercial whaling. Surinamese officials however argue that since whaling is believed to be an ancient Japanese tradition and whale meat is part of the menu in several Japanese communities Suriname will not stand in the way of Japan for observing that tradition.

They also indicate that whales are threatening fish stocks therefore sustainable whaling should be allowed, in order to safe guard the fishing industries worldwide.

“Suriname is supports preservation of the environment and biodiversity, but it also respects the cultures of other nations,” Kermechend Raghoebarsing, minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries said recently during a press conference.

Greenpeace refutes these claims, however, saying that there’s no scientific proof that whales are a threat to the fishing industry.

According to Obaidullah, the Surinamese government doesn’t have a unified position on the whaling issue.

Following discussions she had in March with several ministries, it is evident, she said, that only the ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries supports whaling.

“It seems like only the ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries supports commercial whaling. The discussions I had here with officials revealed that other ministries which also have a stake in this matter don’t have a clue what’s going on,” she said.

She maintains that possibly there is more at hand than securing development aid from Japan by supporting the call for resumption of commercial whaling. “There are several countries such as Brazil which receive development aid from Japan but still vote against whaling at the IWC.”

According to the Greenpeace activist, Suriname should follow in Dominica’s steps, which announced this week that it would abstain from voting this month at the IWC meeting in Chile.

“Whales form an integral part of our marine ecosystems and it is important that we protect them,"  says Leandra Goncalves from Greenpeace Brazil.

“Suriname is well-known for its pro-active position with respect to safeguarding its own environment. Its policy at the IWC is therefore all the more hypocritical and puts Suriname to shame amongst other Latin-American countries,” said Samuel Leiva from Greenpeace Chile.

In January 2007 Japan granted US$7 million to Suriname for the construction of a small-scale fisheries centre in Paramaribo.

Responding to questions from reporters, Foreign Affairs minister Lygia Kraag-Keteldijk then denied that the donation was a favour from Japan in exchange for Suriname's vote to resume commercial whaling at the meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in May that year.

“This project fits within the framework of the cooperation between the two countries. It has nothing to do with the whaling issue,” the minister said.

Suriname have constantly sided with Japan and other pro-whaling nations and voted to end the moratorium on commercial whaling at last year's IWC meeting, since it became an IWC-member in 2003.

Japan, along with a number of countries, including Norway, Nicaragua and Iceland, advocates the lift of a 20-year-old ban, while other nations, including Brazil, Spain, Chile and Peru are against.