Brokopondo is a district of

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

. Its

capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, Department (country subdivision), department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city ...

is Brokopondo; other towns include

Brownsweg Brownsweg is a town and resort in Suriname in the Brokopondo District. Its population at the 2012 census was 4,793. History The town was named after the road that leads to the Brownsberg, and the Brownsberg Nature Park. It is situated near the ...

and Kwakoegron. The district has a

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 15,909, and an

area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape A shape or figure is a graphics, graphical representation of an obje ...

of 7,364 square kilometres.

History

The Brokopondo district was established in 1958 out of the former Suriname District. The establishment of the district was related to the 1958 Brokopondo Agreement between the

Government of Suriname Politics of Suriname take place in a framework of a representative democratic assembly-independent republic, whereby the president of Suriname is the head of state and head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is ...

and

Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for Aluminum Company of America) is a Pittsburgh-based industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary ...

for the creation of the

Brokopondo Reservoir The Brokopondo Reservoir, officially named Professor Doctor Ingenieur W. J. van Blommestein Meer, and also called the Brokopondostuwmeer, is a large reservoir in Suriname. It is named after the Surakarta-born Dutch hydrological engineer Willem ...

. The Brokopondo Reservoir is a large

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

near

Afobaka Afobaka is a village in the Brokopondo District of Suriname. Between 1960 and 1964, the 1913 meter-long Afobaka Dam was built on the Suriname River, creating the Brokopondo Reservoir. The Afobaka Airstrip is nearby. Healthcare Afobaka is home ...

which was built between 1961 and 1964, and produces

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

power that provides approximately half of the domestic electrical need. The plan was very controversial, and involved transmigrating many villages that were located in the area and flooded after the construction of the

Afobaka Dam The Afobaka Dam is an embankment dam with a main gravity dam section on the Suriname River near Afobaka in Brokopondo District of Suriname. The primary purpose of the dam is to generate hydroelectric power and it supports a 180 MW power stati ...

. The transmigration concerned 5,000 people which were almost exclusively

Maroons Maroons are descendants of African diaspora in the Americas, Africans in the Americas who escaped from slavery and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous peoples, eventually ethnogenesi ...

. In 1960, the

Afobakaweg The Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname) has a number of forms of transport. Transportation emissions are an increasing part of Suriname's contributions to climate change, as part of the Nationally Determined Contributions for the Par ...

was constructed to link the reservoir with

Paramaribo Paramaribo (; ; nicknamed Par'bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's ...

and the rest of the country. In 1983, the Districts were redrawn, and most of the

tribal The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...

interior of Suriname was moved into the

Sipaliwini District Sipaliwini is the largest district of Suriname, located in the south. Sipaliwini is the only district that does not have a regional capital, as it is directly administered by the national government in Paramaribo. History Sipaliwini was created i ...

. The Brokopondo Development Plan has designated the town of Brokopondo and

as the two major centres in the region with a focus on tourism. Both towns lack a proper city centre, and will be redevelopment in the early 21st century.

Nature

The district has several

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

s, including the Irene Falls and Leo Falls. In the

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

of Brokopondo, there are large reserves where a diverse variety of

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animal species (biology), species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous ...

exists.

Brownsberg Nature Park Brownsberg Nature Park is a nature park located in Suriname. The site measures 12,000 ha and is located in the district of Brokopondo around 130 km south from the capital city Paramaribo. The 500 meter high Brownsberg is the central point of t ...

is a 12,250

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s nature park in the area which was founded in 1969. About 8,400 hectares are allocated for scientific research. The 60 square km

Brinckheuvel Nature Reserve The Brinckheuvel Nature Reserve (Dutch: Natuurreservaat Brinckheuvel) is a protected area and nature reserve in Suriname. The reserve is located on the Saramacca River, and is the most southern savannah of the Savannah Belt. The Mindrineti River f ...

is also located in the District and was established in 1966. Berg en Dal is a former wood

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

located near the

. In 2008 the plantation was transformed into the ''Berg en Dal Eco & Cultural Resort,'' a luxury holiday

resort A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that tries to provide most of a vacationer's wants, such as food, drink, swimming, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping, on the premises. The term ''resort ...

for

ecotourism Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving responsible travel (using sustainable transport) to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people. Its purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide funds ...

. Berg en Dal is home to the Blauwe Berg, a mountain overlooking the

Suriname River The Suriname River (Dutch: ''Surinamerivier'') is 480 km long and flows through the country Suriname. Its sources are located in the Guiana Highlands on the border between the Wilhelmina Mountains and the Eilerts de Haan Mountains (where it i ...

Agricultural

Most of the Distrikt is not suitable for large scale agriculture. The main crops are

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

, soya,

pineapples The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centurie ...

, and

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible Seed, seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small ...

s. The former plantation Phedra is the agricultural centre of the resort. In 1960, a

palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from ...

plantation was based in Phedra, however the Surinamese Interior War and

lethal yellowing Lethal yellowing (LY) is a phytoplasma disease that attacks many species of palms, including some commercially important species such as the coconut and date palm. In the Caribbean it is spread by the planthopper '' Haplaxius crudus'' (former na ...

resulted in the closure of the factory in Victoria,

Klaaskreek Klaaskreek is a resort in Suriname, located in the Brokopondo District. Its population at the 2012 census was 2,124. Located northeast of Brokopondo, the main town is Reinsdorp. In 2007, a technical training centre in biological agriculture was ...

in 1996.

Economy

Recently,

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

has been discovered in the Brokopondo district, and this has led to many new settlers arriving in the district, both from other parts of Suriname and from the rest of the world. In 2011, a large scale concession was given to the Suparna Gold Corporation in

Sarakreek Sarakreek is a resorts of Suriname, resort (≈ municipality) in the gold mining region of Brokopondo District in Suriname. Its population at the 2012 census was 3,076. It is served by the Sarakreek Airstrip. The resort is named after the eponymo ...

Resorts

Brokopondo is divided into 6 resorts (''ressorten''): *

Centrum (Latin for ''center'') may refer to: Places In Greenland * Nuuk Centrum, a district of Nuuk, Greenland * Centrum Lake, Greenland In the Netherlands * Amsterdam-Centrum, the inner-most borough of Amsterdam, Netherlands * Rotterdam Centrum, a borou ...

* Kwakoegron *

Marshallkreek Marshallkreek (also Marchallkreek) is a resort in Suriname, located in the Brokopondo District. Its population at the 2012 census was 1,171. The resort and town are named after Captain Marshall who first settled Suriname in 1630. The resort contai ...

Villages

Baikoetoe Baikoetoe (also: ''Baikuku'') is a village in Sarakreek resort in Brokopondo District in Suriname. It is located on Brokopondo Reservoir. Nearby towns and villages include Mofina (17.0 nm), Warnakomoponafaja (17.4 nm), La Valere (16.1 nm), Adaw ...

* Berg en Dal * Brokopondo *

* Lebidoti * Nieuw-Koffiekamp * Nieuw-Lombe *

Zoewatta Zoewatta is a village in the Boven Suriname municipality (resort) in Sipaliwini District in Suriname. It is located on Brokopondo Reservoir. Nearby towns and villages include Wittikamba (3.6 nm), Baikoetoe Baikoetoe (also: ''Baikuku'') is ...

References

External links

{{Coord, 4, 46, 21, N, 55, 07, 46, W, region:SR-BR_type:adm1st, display=title Districts of Suriname