Districts
Surinam is divided in ten districts, governed by a district commissioner. The central government has its seat in Paramaribo, of which the districts are administrative parts. The districtcommissioner gets its instructions from the Minister of Regional Development. Each district is subdivided into a number of areas controled by a district official with its own post. A municipal division is missing however. Within a district one can divide several communities. This can be settlements ( old plantations), villagecommunities, water board districts or villages.

The major part of the Surinam population lives in the capitol of Paramaribo. The best infrastructure can be found in the north of the country. This is where all the cities are located. In other parts of the country one can find a number of small settlements.
During the time when Surinam was discovered, the country was a lot smaller. From the coast going inland the distance was about 100 kilometres.. This was the property of the Dutch. The other part was Portugueese property, that should have been given to Brasil, but Portugal gave land north of the "Guyana mountains" to the Guyana countries. This is how Guyana, the former English Guyana, Surinam, the former Dutch and French Guyana reached their present surface.

In the following overall picture of the districts, the capitol of each districts will be mentioned between brackets.

Nickerie (Nieuw Nickerie)
The in the west located border area, Nickerie, is surrounded by Guyana in the west, the Atlantic in the north, the Coronie district in the east and the Sipaliwini district in the south. Almost a 150 years after the first Europeans settled in Surinam, the first plantations ( Paradise and Plaissance) were established by Scottish colonists in 1797. After the soil became fertile, many colonists settled in the Nickerei. In the first half of the century the district was known as Lower-Nickerie. The district called Coronie was formerly known as Upper-Nickerie. In 1851 these prefixes were left out and the area became known as Nickerie. Until 1983, when the borders were newly established, Nickerie was the biggest district, taking up 64.000 square kilometres, 39% of the Surinam territory. After the repartition, almost 90% of Nickerie was added to the newly formed Sipaliwini district.

The Nickerie district is named after the river Nickerie, which probably comes from the Warraus, a language of one of the native Indian tribes. On the savannah of Sipaliwini, almost 8,000 year old remains were found indicating human population.

Nickerie is made up out of five regions. New Nickerie, Wageningen, Groot Henar, the Eastern Polders and the Western Polders.
Nickerie was the first populated district in Surinam. In 1921 it had 8.325 inhabitants, which was 9% of the total population of Surinam.
In 1996 there were 33.619 people in the district, which was equal to 8% of the total population 10.000 of them lived in the capital New Nickerie.
The mainly hindu and javanese population works in the rice sector. The major part of the rice production is exported, which benefits the Surinam public revenues/ treasury.
Also the growth of bananas is extensive in this area.

Para (Onverwacht)
The district of para is the economic heart of Surinam. Here are the bauxite mining companies Billiton and Suralco and the international airport Zanderij. The savanna area with its forest and cold creeks draws excursionists/ day trippers and weekend tourists to the holiday resorts present.

Commewijne (Tamanredjo)
Commewijne is a districts where time seems to have come to a stand still. The eighteenth century plantations are inhabited by decendants from the workforce that was imported from Java and India. Only few of these plantations are still in use. During the last few years the interest in agriculture is decreasing and the population is concentrating on fishing. New privat companies focussing on stock breeding and aquaculture create new opportunities for employment.

Marowijne (Albina)
Marowijne is the most eastern situated district of Surinam. In this district there are also some mining activities, in the area of Mungo, the most important economic factor.
In this district you can find the Galibi reserve with its beautiful sandbeaches Baboesanti and Eilanti. More and more tourists visit this area because of the native indians that live here and because of he giant turtles that lay their eggs on the beach from February till August.

Saramacca (Groningen)
The district of Saramacca is a very thinly populated area. Only 3% of the Surinam population lives in this region. The few inhabitants live on stock breeding and the growth of rice and vegetables. An important product of Saramacca is oil. This oil is extracted by the Surinam state-owned oil company and goes through an underground pipeline to the refinery in Paramaribo. Biggest customer is Suralco, who uses the oil to process their bauxite to alumina ( a raw material for the production of aluminium).

Coronie (Totness)
Coronie has hardly threethousand inhabitants. After having produced cacao, cotton and cane sugar for a while, the competiton of companies abroad became to strong, and after the plantation owners had left, the remaining african-american population decided on the growth of coconuts. Nowadays the coconut production is only small, due to age and disease that afflicts the palmtrees. Lately, in cooperation with the European Union rice fields are created in Coronie. Disappointing harvests caused more than half of the population to leave for Paramaribo.

Wanica (Lelydorp)
Wanica is an agricultural area where the urban influence of the city is noticeable. The areas along the Indira Ghandi road are clearly more densely populated than the rest of the district.

Brokopondo (Brokopondo)
In this district the important Brokopondo storage reservoir is located. The electricity, that is generated here, is essential to the processing of bauxite into alumina and aluminium.
Also in this district is the Brownsberg nature park. Many Surinam people have had their first encounter with the inlands visiting this park. Many schools organize trips to this region.

Sipaliwini (Sipaliwini)
With its surface of 130.600 km2, this district takes up almost 80% of the total national surface. This region contains mostly jungle. Roads are not present and the population is minimal. The most densely populated areas can be found along the Surinam and Tapanahon river.

Paramaribo ( Paramaribo)
This is where the capitol Paramaribo is located surrounded by a number of former plantations. In this district most industries that produce the domestic requirements can be found, such as: clothing factories, fodder factories, sawmills, lemonade and ice factories, concrete factories, shoe factories, furniture factories, candy factories and a tobacco factory.