Environment-current issues: deforestation as timber is cut for export; pollution of inland waterways by small-scale mining activities
Environment-international agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea
Geography-note: mostly tropical rain forest; great diversity of flora and fauna which for the most part is increasingly threatened by new development; relatively small population most of which lives along the coast
@Suriname:People
Population: 427,980 (July 1998 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 33% (male 72,945; female 69,468) 15-64 years: 62% (male 133,840; female 129,452) 65 years and over: 5% (male 10,309; female 11,966) (July 1998 est.)
Population growth rate: 0.77% (1998 est.)
Birth rate: 22.48 births/1,000 population (1998 est.)
Death rate: 5.79 deaths/1,000 population (1998 est.)
Net migration rate: -8.99 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1998 est.)