Three planned large-scale agricultural projects in western Suriname have not yet secured all mandatory government and environmental approvals required for full construction to begin, Braganza Marketing Group director Lionel Blokland has confirmed in written responses to local outlet Starnieuws.
Blokland outlined three outstanding preconditions that must be satisfied before the full 34,185-hectare initiative can get underway. First, the company is still waiting on formal logging permits to clear land for production. Second, it has not received preliminary approval from the National Environmental Authority (NMA) to launch full activities. Third, it requires government cooperation to ensure that participating Mennonite migrants continue to comply with Suriname’s immigration regulations.
While preliminary site preparation work including limited deforestation is already underway at the project locations along the Weg naar West-Suriname corridor, Blokland emphasized that all current activities fall within the scope of a pre-negotiated agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (LVV). Under that agreement, the company is permitted to construct work camps, mark project boundaries and complete other pre-development groundwork, and Braganza maintains it has not conducted any work that requires unapproved permits at this stage.
The public law agreement between Braganza and LVV requires all site preparation, agricultural infrastructure work and land development to adhere to strict existing regulatory conditions, including binding environmental protection requirements and full compliance with all Surinamese national laws. Environmental scrutiny of the project has been particularly intense due to the large scale of the proposed soy and maize production operations, which are planned for the Tibiti and Kabalebo regions.
Braganza has previously stated that internal surveys of the project area found no evidence of primary old-growth forest on the site, a claim intended to address concerns about widespread ecological harm from large-scale industrial agriculture. However, final authority to assess the project’s environmental impact rests with the national environmental regulator, not the developer itself.
Blokland’s recent confirmation makes clear that both logging approval processes and full environmental assessment procedures are still ongoing. As of yet, there is no public timeline for when the required final approvals will be granted, nor is there clarity on what specific binding conditions regulators will attach to the greenlight for full project implementation. Intensive consultations between Braganza, LVV and other national regulatory bodies are currently underway to resolve the outstanding approval issues.