About Us
Suriname is part of the mighty Amazon rainforest and is also part of the 1.8 Billion year old Guiana Shield.
The forest provides us with clean water, oxygen, climate stability, shelter against the sun, preventing of soil erosion, preventing of mudslides, clean air, medicines, food, beautiful animals, trees, flowers, fruit and lots more.
Our part of the Amazon is also under huge threat with legal and illegal gold mining and logging but above all... Corruption...
While working for STINASU, the foundation for Nature Conservation in Suriname, Erlan Sleur was confronted with illegal logging and gold mining in Brownsberg Nature Park. Corruption and the so-called blind walls within the government and the cover-ups were the reasons for his resignation. Angry but determined he started the foundation PROBIOS in 2009 to fight the destruction as an advocate for Mother Nature.
Erlan Sleur, the founder of Probios in March 2009
Our strategy is to expose nature destruction and the national and international culprits.
Our Focal Points and Projects: Mercury poisoning, Mercury pollution, Deforestation, Land degradation, Water Pollution, Air Pollution, Nuclear Waste, Chemical Pollution, Cyanide in Gold Mining, Industrial Mining, Persistent Organic Pollution, Logging, Illegal Gold Mining Brownsberg Nature Park, Sand Mining on Turtle Nesting Beaches, Threats to Indigenous Communities, Poaching of Wild Life, Wild Life Trade, Climate Change, Fossil fuels, Flooding of forests for Hydroelectricity, Export of round wood or logs, Corruption, Abuse of Human Rights, Animal Rights etc...
We have Projects for: Awareness, Reforestation, Land restoration, Ecotourism, Nature Film Productions, Jaguars, Sea turtles, Nature Research, Nature Education, Mangrove restoration, Community Research Laboratory etc
You can only protect what you know and city people know too little about our nature here in Suriname. Probios brings the beauty of our forest in your home on ATV (channel 12.1). "The Forest is our Home" is our theme to show this beauty of the forest with its animals. With wildlife photography and films we want to bring the forest in your home.
Sea Turtles with a history of more than 100 million years are now endangered because of human activities, fishing nets, poaching of their eggs and meat. Suriname has some of the last strongholds for nesting sea turtle. In 2017 the government gave sand mining concessions on these important nesting beaches right at the start of the nesting season in February. This sparked outrage with many people in Paramaribo. Probios was in the lead of the protest on the nesting beaches and a week later in front of Parliament (DNA).
We humans often don't realize how important these forests are for sustainable life on this planet and greed takes over when seeing all the trees they can cut for money. We call this quick money for a few persons but the threat for life on Earth will be for all of us. Our goal is to make nature documentaries with the same theme. It is amazing to see how animals behave, interact, care and socialize. Only by understanding animals and their behavior, we can grow empathy for our planet Earth and its beautiful and precious garden of life. Your donation will be appreciated in our efforts to bring this to your living room.
ProBioS has some true friends in Suriname, The Netherlands, French-Guyane, Brazil and Colombia and will always look for more partners to strengthen its projects and targets. Probios has strong commitments to Mother Earth and will therefore NEVER accept donations from polluting companies (so-called greenwashing) or corrupt governments. Money is not our goal but just one of many tools to reach our goal. That goal is to Protect Nature no matter what.