French Guiana is a French overseas department in the northeast of
South America. French Guiana offers fascinating insights into the
history of space travel, beautiful beaches, untouched rainforests with a
diverse animal world and the cultural diversity of the indigenous
peoples, which offer visitors unique experiences and adventures.
French Guiana is the only one of the three Guianas that is not yet
independent. It will probably never be, because the inhabitants benefit
from the highest standard of living in South America, so that less than
10 percent of the population supports secession from France.
The
area borders Brazil and Suriname and is mostly covered by tropical
jungle. It is still extremely sparsely populated, but a large number of
immigrants from neighboring countries and from Asia are slowly changing
this and contributing to a multicultural flair. Of interest to travelers
are the Kourou spaceport and the capital Cayenne with the offshore
former penal colony on the Îles du Salut archipelago.
French
Guiana is 90% covered by jungle. Except for a few towns and villages in
the center of the country (e.g. Saül), only the coast is populated.
Apart from a few smaller streams and waterways, there are two large
rivers, the Maroni, which marks the western border with Suriname, and
the Oyapock, which forms the border with Brazil in the east.
In
addition to the Devil's Islands, there are also a few small islands off
Rémire.
The population is made up of various ethnic groups. These
include around 40 different indigenous peoples, Creoles and Noirs
Marrons - the descendants of the slaves abducted at the time of
colonization -, French, Hmongs from Laos, Brazilians, Surinamese and
Antillais, immigrants from the Caribbean Antilles. Immigration from
nearby Brazil in particular has led to high population growth since the
end of the 20th century.
The country is divided into two arrondissements (Cayenne and Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni) and 22 communes. The cantons have been abolished since 2016.
1 Cayenne – 65000 inhabitants, the prefecture. It is located on the
Atlantic in the central part.
2 Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni – 20,000
inhabitants. Sub-prefecture, border town to Suriname, on the Maroni
River.
3 Kourou – Population 20,000, known for the Center Spatiale
Guyannais Cosmodrome.
4 Saint-Georges-de-l'Oyapock - 4,000
inhabitants, until 2004 isolated border town to Brazil, slightly inland
on the Oyapock River in the east.
5 Maripasoula – Population 5,000,
largest inland community located on the Suriname border in the
southwest.
Îles du Salut (Salvation Islands) . Until 1951, France maintained a
prison for up to 2,000 prisoners on the entire archipelago. On the Île
Royale were the administration, the hospital and the death row. However,
most of the prisoners were housed in solitary cells on Île Saint-Joseph.
The prison conditions were inhuman. There were cells without a roof,
leaving the inmates exposed to the tropical sun and rain. One of the
most prominent prisoners on the Île du Diable was Captain Alfred
Dreyfus. Today the islands are a popular tourist destination. In
addition to the ruins of the penal colony, the fauna is also worth a
visit. Squirrel monkeys and macaws are used to visitors and can be
hand-fed. There are also iguanas and caimans.
Center Spatial
Guyanais. European Spaceport Kourou.
French Guiana is part of the European Union but not part of the Schengen area. EU citizens can therefore freely reside in the territory and also look for work, but their passport or identity card will be checked upon entry.
Cayenne Airport (Aéroport
international Félix Éboué, CAY) is located south of the capital Cayenne
in the suburb of Matoury. It is served from France (Paris-Orly), Brazil
(Belém, Macapá, São Luiz, Fortaleza, Recife) as well as Fort-de-France,
Pointe-à-Pitre, Santo Domingo, Port-au-Prince and Miami. Airlines are
Air France, Air Caribe and TAF.
Domestic connections are
available to Maripasoula and Saul with Air Guyane Express.
There are no rail connections in and to French Guiana.
The
border towns to Brazil (Saint-Georges-de-l'Oyapock / Oiapoque) and
Suriname (Saint-Laurent du Maroni / Albina) are served by "Taxi-Co"
(shared taxis), which are significantly cheaper than regular taxis but
more expensive than buses are. However, there are no direct connections
to these countries yet.
From Brazil by public transport overland:
The only good starting point is Macapá (the capital of Amapá), which can
be reached by ferry from Belém (and by plane from other cities). From
Macapá there are afternoon buses to Oiapoque, arriving in the morning.
Otherwise, there is the option of renting an off-road vehicle with a
driver (also at the bus station) as an "unofficial shared taxi", which
is a bit more expensive but also faster. In Oiapoque you take a
passenger boat to cross to French Guiana. If you are not an EU citizen
and need a stamp or visa, you have to report to the immigration
authorities yourself, as there are no border controls. Then take a
Taxi-Co to Cayenne (see above).
By car,
entry is best possible from Suriname via a ferry from Albina to St.
Laurent-du-Maroni. Getting there by car from Brazil is still cumbersome.
Entry via the eastern border (via Oiapoque) takes a long time and is
also quite expensive. One must first drive to Macapá, which can only be
reached from Belem by ferry, which takes a full day to cross the Amazon
estuary (departures are usually in the morning). Then take the BR-156 to
Oiapoque (about 500 km) which is paved - certain sections may become
impassable during rainy weather, nor should you ever stop outside of
built-up areas as car thefts by armed gangs are common on this route. In
Belem (cheaper) and Macapá you should definitely fill up, as there is no
petrol station on the entire route. The border river between Oiapoque in
the Brazilian state of Amapá and Saint-Georges in French Guiana has been
accessible via a bridge since March 2017.
The route over the
Transamazónica (BR-230 and BR-319, via Manaus and Boa Vista (Roraima))
is currently almost impassable, especially in the rainy season. The
problem is the BR-319, which has not been maintained. Few adventurers
venture on the route in off-road vehicles or motorbikes - a BBC team
took six days to complete the 600km a few years ago.
If you accept
the hardships despite everything, you can easily get to French Guiana
from Manaus via Suriname. While the BR-319 is currently undergoing
refurbishment, there is no guarantee that the entire route will actually
be paved as planned.
There is a car ferry on the western border to Suriname.
Unfortunately, there is hardly any public transport in French Guiana.
Regular buses only operate in Cayenne, but it is not recommended to
rely on the bus being on time. The price is a standard €1.10.
Medium-distance transport is handled exclusively by shared taxis
("taxi-co"). These are minibuses with up to 10 seats that run on the
coast road without a timetable. The buses only leave when they are full
- so you have to plan quite a bit of time. Prices are moderate, for
example Cayenne-Kourou costs €10, Cayenne - Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni €35
and Cayenne - Saint-Georges de l'Oyapock €40.
Most places in the
rainforest can only be reached by plane with the regional airline Air
Guyane, as there are no roads yet. The cities of Saul and Maripasoula
are served.
Taxi boats operate between Saint-Laurent and Apatou.
The main roads around Cayenne and Kourou, which have been developed
and signposted according to French standards, are easy to drive on with
a rental car. Due to the heavy rainfall, however, the roads can have
large potholes, and deer crossing is to be expected. At night, the
streets outside of town are unlit. Outside the cities, the condition of
the roads, especially after rain, can be quite "adventurous".
The official language in French Guiana is French. The second most
important language is Creole. It is spoken mainly by the Creole part of
the population, but also by others. Créole is very common among young
people. You also hear a lot of Portuguese.
English doesn't get
you very far in Guiana. It is recommended to have at least a basic
knowledge of French.
There is a "Hypermarché" just outside of Cayenne. This is a shopping
center which, in addition to a large supermarket (Hypermarché), also has
smaller shops such as a supermarket. B. jewelers or mobile phone shops.
The supermarket stocks everything from books to clothes and a wide range
of groceries.
In the city you will find other small supermarkets
and also opportunities for shopping. There is also a large number of
"Épiceries" (sort of like a corner shop). There you will mainly find
groceries, but also other everyday necessities such as anti-mosquito
spray, toothpaste and other hygiene items, stationery, etc. While
supermarkets usually close at 7 or 8 p.m., the shops, which are often
run by Asians, are also open in the evenings.
Most goods,
including food, come from the European continent. Branded articles and
hygiene products in particular are therefore expensive. As in all of
France, electronic goods are subject to a kind of "luxury tax".
Regionally produced fruit and vegetables, on the other hand, are
inexpensive, as is the rum produced in the country and in the French
Antilles.
Similar to e.g. the Canary Islands, French Guiana is
part of the customs area, but not the tax area of the EU. Accordingly,
customs levies import sales tax and excise duties (e.g. spirits tax) on
souvenirs if the (narrow) exemption limits are exceeded.
The Guayanese cuisine is very exotic for Europeans. There is a lot of
fish and meat from animals from the jungle. Some restaurants also offer
protected animal species (e.g. green turtles or caiman). One should
think twice before ordering one of these exotic dishes.
A typical
Guayanese dish consists of fish and other seafood or game served with
rice, red beans or couac (flour made from dried cassava) and can be
quite spicy as generous amounts of spices are often used. What do you
expect from a region whose capital gave the cayenne pepper its name? Of
course, it is always possible to ask the chef to make the dish less
spicy.
Rice, red beans or couac (cooked cassava flour) are almost
always served as side dishes. Lentilles (lentils) or haricots rouges
(red beans) are often served with game or fish.
Bouillon d'Awara
- the pulp of a palm tree (Astrocaryum vulgare) is fried with smoked
chicken and fish
Colombo - a Creole dish with pork or chicken
Kalou, Kalalou, is a fish dish with spinach and okra
Pimentade is a
peppered and lemon flavored fish in a tomato sauce
Blaff is a
bouillon made from onions, garlic, celery and basil
Blaf de poisson
is fish prepared with court bouillon
Roti couniad, fish is grilled
with its scales
Poulet boucané is smoked chicken
Poisson boucané
is smoked fish
During Carnival (from the 1st Sunday in January to Ash Wednesday)
there is a lot of celebration. Every Sunday there are parades in
Cayenne, Kourou and Saint Laurent.
In the evening you can go to
the disco or a bar. In Cayenne "Le Soleil Levant" and "Chez Polina" are
recommended for the carnival season, in Kourou "La Matadô". Outside the
carnival period, you can go to the following discos and bars: "Petit Bar
De L'ouest", "Bar des Palmistes", "Lido Night", "Loft" and "Acropolis".
There is also a bowling center in Rémire-Montjoly.
In Cayenne, the "Amazonia", the "Central Hotel" and the "Novotel"
belong to the upper category. However, they are more geared towards
business travelers than tourists. There are also small pensions, but
these are often not listed on the internet.
There are two hotels
in Kourou. Hotel Mercure Kourou Ariatel and Hotel Kourou Atlantis. Both
are also in the upper price sector.
In addition, the hotel
"Atlantis" which is used a lot by fitters and the relatively new "El
Marina" on the outskirts of Kourou in the middle price sector.
If
you want to spend the night in the forest, you should rent a "carbet" (a
kind of spacious hut). There you can sleep in a hammock.
EU citizens also benefit from free movement of workers and freedom of establishment in French Guiana. However, unemployment is very high at 29.5%, which is also due to the extreme population growth (from 1990 to 2009 the number of inhabitants doubled!). So if you want to emigrate to French Guiana, you are well advised to get plenty of information, good knowledge of French is a must. You are most likely to find what you are looking for in the medical field.
Parts of the country are patrolled by the French Foreign Legion (Légion Étrangère), which takes action against illegal gold prospectors there. The Foreign Legion also protects the spaceport and maintains a jungle combat training camp in the country.
The European health insurance card is recognized in all French
overseas departments.
A yellow fever vaccination that is no more
than 10 years old and documented in the vaccination card is mandatory
for entry. Other vaccinations, e.g. B. against typhus and hepatitis, are
recommended. Malaria and dengue fever are also common in French Guiana,
and typhoid and cholera occur occasionally. Outside the cities, medical
care can be patchy.
When handling food and water, the usual
precautions for tropical regions should be observed.
In nature,
long clothes and sturdy shoes protect against mosquitoes, ants and the
extremely unpleasant Pou d'Agouti (a skin parasite related to the autumn
mite). Mosquito repellent sprays also help to keep these animals away.
Fair-skinned people should also think about adequate sun protection.
Although Creole culture is very present in French Guiana, the Guianas are proud to be French and consider themselves French. Criticizing the behavior of the Guayanese or similar should be avoided. Another issue to be careful about is slavery.
French Guiana has a tropical climate. The temperature stays the same
all year round, at around 26 °C. However, due to the high humidity, it
feels warmer. It cools down at night, but wearing long pants and a
long-sleeved t-shirt or light sweater is sufficient.
The rainy
season is from December to May/June and the dry season is from June to
December. During the rainy season, there are heavy rain showers or
continuous rain every day. It is therefore somewhat cooler than during
the dry season (approx. 25 °C). "Dry season" means that it only rains
occasionally. The humidity is still very high.
The EU roaming regulation applies in French Guiana, so there are no
roaming fees for travelers from Germany and Austria.
Prepaid
cards can be bought on site without any problems.
Guiana comes from the Arawak word for land of many waters. The adjective French is incorporated into most languages other than French, as it has its roots in the colonial era when there were five colonies called the Guianas. Namely, Spanish Guiana (Guiana Region, in Venezuela), British Guiana, Dutch Guiana, French Guiana and Portuguese Guiana (Brazilian region of Amapá).
French Guiana was originally inhabited by tribes of indigenous Caribs
and Arawaks from Venezuela, mainly, and also by small groups of Galibi,
Emerillon, Palikour, Waiampi and Wayana.
France colonized the
territory in the 17th century; this colonization was accomplished when
Louis XIV sent thousands of settlers to Guiana. The settlers were
enticed into this venture with stories of great gold and easy fortunes
to be made. Instead, they found a land full of hostile natives and
tropical diseases. A year and a half later, only a few hundred survived.
The survivors fled to three small islands that could be seen from
the shore and called them the Îles du Salut (Salvation Islands). When
the survivors of this failed expedition returned home, the terrible
stories they told of the colony left a lasting impression on France.
In 1794, after the death of Robespierre, 193 of his followers were
sent to Guiana. In 1797 the republican general Pichegru and many
deputies and journalists were also sent to the colony. Later, slaves
were brought from Africa and plantations were established along the
disease-free areas along the rivers, which brought some prosperity to
the colony for the first time. In December 1808 it was invaded by
Luso-Brazilian troops due to the Napoleonic invasion of Portugal. In
1848, France abolished slavery and the former slaves fled into the
forest, establishing communities similar to those they had when they
lived in Africa before being captured.
In 1852, the first loads
of chained convicts arrived from metropolitan France. In 1885, in order
to get rid of habitual criminals and increase the number of colonists,
the French parliament passed a law that anyone, whether male or female,
who had more than three sentences for theft of more than three months
each, would be sent to French Guiana as a relegate. These relegates were
kept in prison there for a period of six months after which they were
released to become inhabitants of the colony. However, this experiment
was a failure: the prisoners were unable to earn a living by working the
land, so they were forced to commit crimes again or earn a living until
they died. In fact, being sent to French Guiana as a relegate was a life
sentence, and usually a short sentence, since most relegates died
quickly from disease and malnutrition.
The first archaeological remains (ceramics, rock carvings, polishers,
etc.) of Amerindian peoples between the Oyapock and Maroni rivers date
back to the 5th millennium BC. Many of their successors in the same
geographical area belong mainly to the Tupi-Guarani linguistic group.
It is estimated that at the end of the 2nd century, Arawak and
Palikur Indians from the banks of the Amazon settled on the Guyanese
coast. In the 8th century, they were followed by the Kalinago or
Karibes, the Kali'na (Galibis) and the Wayana.
The coast of
Guyana was surveyed by Christopher Columbus in 1498. Despite the
division of the New World in 1494 by the Treaty of Tordesillas between
Portugal and Spain, European nations made numerous attempts to colonise
Guyana from the 16th century onwards.
The first French
settlements in the Cayenne area began in 1503, especially by the French,
through the voyage of Nicolas Guimestre in 1539, followed by that of the
Englishman Robert Baker (1562) and that of Gaspard de Sotelle
(1568-1573), who established more than 120 Spanish families on the
island of Cayenne.
From 1596 to 1598, the Englishmen John Ley and
Lawrence Keymis, and the Dutchman Abraham Cabeliau carried out a precise
geographical reconnaissance of the Guyanese coast. The real European
settlements appeared above all in the 17th century, through punctual
occupations (a few years) of the mouths of the rivers, and were the work
of France, England and the Netherlands.
In 1604, the colony of
Guyana was renamed Equinoctial France.
Although the first major attempts at French colonisation date back to
the 1620s, they were often thwarted by internal dissensions among the
settlers, poor human relations with the Amerindians and even the
harshness of living conditions, particularly with yellow fever. For
their part, the Amerindian nations had to cope with a high mortality
rate, due to the wars waged against the colonisers, but also to the
action of epidemics recently imported from Europe.
For a long
time, the control of the French king over French Guiana was regularly
challenged; it was only with the recapture of Cayenne in December 1676
by Admiral Jean d'Estrées that the French finally established
themselves. Even then, they only controlled the island of Cayenne and,
intermittently, a few military posts in the river estuaries. This weak
human and military presence largely explains the extreme ease with which
the Portuguese in Brazil took over the island of Cayenne during the
Napoleonic Wars, an island they occupied from 1809 to 1817.
The
colonisation of French Guiana was initially carried out by European
workers, the engagés, also known as the thirty-six months because they
were bound by a three-year contract to their master. This attempt, due
to a lack of volunteers, was quickly replaced by slaves of African
origin, who were used in the dwellings (farms) to grow colonial
products: sugar, spices, chocolate and coffee.
As in the other
French colonies, slavery was largely governed by the texts of the Black
Code (1685). This housing society remained the dominant economic model
in French Guiana until the second abolition of slavery in 1848. However,
it did not bring any real development to French Guiana, which remained
the poor and depopulated region of the French colonial empire in
America. In 1713, during the Treaty of Utrecht, the French king Louis
XIV, in order to limit local conflicts with the Portuguese colony of
Brazil, laid the foundations of the border between Brazil and France.
The Kourou expedition, launched in 1763, was very poorly prepared.
It was undertaken at the request of Choiseul and led by the knight
Étienne-François Turgot, governor, Jean-Baptiste Thibault de Chanvalon,
intendant, and Antoine Brûletout de Prefontaine, commander, in order to
establish a real colony of farmers of European origin in the savannahs
of western Guiana. However, it was a resounding failure: almost all the
surviving settlers fled from Guiana to the mother country. Only the
German and Canadian settlers remained in French Guiana, settling
permanently in Kourou, Sinnamary, Malmanoury, Corossony and Iracoubo,
where they founded an original (and mixed) society of farmers in French
Guiana.
French Guiana was occupied by the British from 1778 to
1783, and then from 1785 to 1788.
During the Revolution, it
became for the first time (Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne), a
place of political deportation; followed in 1798, when French Guiana was
constituted as a department, by the successful deportees and the
refractory priests: Counamama and Sinnamary were the cemetery of most of
them.
Slavery was abolished in 1794 in all the colonies, before being
re-established by Napoleon I in 1804. It was finally abolished by the
decree abolishing slavery on 27 April 1848, under the impetus of the
abolitionist Victor Schoelcher. The disappearance of slave labour
brought the traditional colonial economy to a standstill.
During
the French Revolution, French Guiana was occupied by the Portuguese, who
held Brazil, from 1809 to 1817: this period of occupation left its mark
on French Guiana Creole, which incorporated many Portuguese words into
its vocabulary. Although the island was returned to the French,
following the application of the Treaty of Vienna in 1815, the effective
return of the French took place in April 1817, when a governor was sent.
To compensate for the lack of manpower, but above all to rid the
metropolis of republican political opponents and common criminals, the
Second Empire created prisons in French Guiana. They accommodated
deportees, transported people and also relegated prisoners until 1946.
In the 1930s, Special Penitentiary Establishments, also known as
Annamite prisons, were created in the Inini Territory. Populated by
political opponents and Indochinese intellectuals, but also by petty
criminals, thieves and pimps, these prisons were a bitter failure.
Attempts to populate French Guiana with free workers of immigrant
origin (Africa, India, the United States, Madeira, etc.) were no more
sustainable.
In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht established a border between French and Portuguese territories on the Guiana Shield. A river was to serve as the border, but the treaty is not sure which river it refers to. In 1822, Brazil became independent. Several hundred square kilometres were disputed between France and Brazil. The disputed territory became a neutral territory, a refuge for adventurers, escaped convicts and abandoned slaves. At the end of the 19th century, the two countries agreed to resort to Swiss arbitration. Brazilian diplomacy was heavily involved in this arbitration, while France did not put much effort into the negotiations. The Swiss arbitration was issued in 1900 in favour of Brazil, and the Oyapock River remained the border between French Guiana and Brazil. The French were unable to establish themselves on the now Brazilian bank.
In 1855, a gold deposit was discovered in eastern Guyana, on the
Arataye, a tributary of the Approuague. In the west, gold was mined from
the Inini River (Haut-Maroni). The beginning of the 20th century was
marked by a gold rush, with 10,000 miners active, leading to an often
artificial growth in local trade, and the cessation of the last
agricultural activities due to a lack of labour.
The short-lived
existence of the independent Republic of Guyana (Amapá, 1886-1891, then
the Free State of Counani (1904-1912)) is linked to this gold rush.
Like Réunion, Guadeloupe and Martinique, French Guiana became a
French overseas department in 1946. However, economic take-off was
difficult due to high production costs, low population, commercial
dependence (imports) on France and the flagrant lack of the most basic
infrastructure: roads, schools, health system, etc.
Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, Cayenne and the Salvation Islands were
deportation centres for those sentenced to forced labour from 1852 to
1946, by decision of Napoleon III. Captain Alfred Dreyfus was sent there
in 1894.
French Guiana remained a French colony until 19 March
1946, when it was granted the status of an overseas department. France
hoped that the detainees would also be colonists. But this was a
failure. The prison was closed after the Second World War, following the
publication of 27 articles by Albert Londres and under the impetus of
Gaston Monnerville. In 1938, the last convoy of convicts headed for
French Guiana, but it was not until 1945 that the Constituent Assembly
decided to repatriate the survivors who wished to do so (very few
remained). The operation lasted eight years.
French Guiana was
named an Overseas Department of France on 19 March 1946. The penal
colonies, including Devil's Island, were formally closed in 1951. At
first, only released prisoners who could afford the fare for their
return to metropolitan France were allowed to return home, and so French
Guiana suffered after the official closure of the prisons from the crime
committed by many released prisoners who led an aimless existence in the
colony.
Since 1954 there has been little economic growth. French Guiana is
heavily dependent on food and fuel imports and unemployment is
chronically high.
In 1964, General de Gaulle decided to build a
space base in French Guiana to replace the Saharan base located in
Algeria, at Hammaguir. The position of the department is privileged,
close to the equator and with a wide opening to the ocean. The Guiana
Space Centre, from the first Véronique rockets, has developed
considerably over the years.
The European spaceport with
launchers such as the Ariane 4 and Ariane 5, which are proving to be a
real commercial success worldwide, the Guiana Space Centre is also
developing the Vega Programme, and a Soyuz launch base has been built at
Sinnamary. In 2021, French Guiana will see the launch of the new Ariane
6 rocket, a project developed in 2014.
In 1982, decentralisation
laws came into force and a transfer of powers to local authorities took
place, which became actors in the development of French Guiana.
A
substantial development has been triggered by the establishment of a
satellite launch base of the European Space Agency at the Centre Spatial
Guyanais, Kourou in 1975. This has provided local employment, for
technicians, mainly from the metropolis, and for soldiers, who bring
cash to the local economy.
On 29 October 2010, the European company Arianespace launched a
rocket with two communication satellites on board from the Kourou base.
The take-off took place at 21:51 UTC.
At the end of March 2017,
the French-Guianans began a general strike and protests for more
resources and infrastructure. On March 28, 2017, the largest
demonstration in the history of French Guiana took place. Protests
against the French government have been intensifying.
The 2017
social movement in French Guiana began in Kourou and spread throughout
the territory of Guiana in the following days. Its origins are linked to
the insecurity and lack of infrastructure that the inhabitants of this
French overseas department say they are victims of. It led to the
postponement of the launch of an Ariane launcher and the delay in the
arrival of several satellites at the Guiana Space Center.
The
situation was resolved with the Guiana agreement, signed on April 21, in
which the Cazeneuve government finally released more than 1 billion
euros to finance projects aimed at improving health care, security, the
economy and the functioning of justice in the department.
Its territory covers an area of 83,846 km², and is the second
largest region in France after Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It is located in the
northern part of South America and borders Suriname to the west and
Brazil to the east and south.
A dense equatorial forest covers
90% of its territory. The main means of access to the interior are
waterways and most communities can only be reached by motorboat.
Only 5% of the territory is inhabited by the 208,000 inhabitants (in
1999), 60% of whom are Creoles and just over 10% French from Europe.
Only the 390-kilometer coastal strip is easily accessible, the rest of
the territory is covered by a dense equatorial forest. Currently, the
neighboring country Suriname claims the area between the Litani and
Marouiní rivers. This territorial conflict is still unresolved.
French Guiana borders Brazil for 730 km and Suriname for 520 km,
making Brazil the country with the longest land border with France
(Suriname is the sixth).
To the southwest, in the Itany-Marwini
triangle, a 6,000 km² uninhabited territory claimed by Suriname is
dependent on French Guiana. It is virtually unvisited, except by some
gold seekers and French military personnel. The re-estimation of the
surface area of French Guiana is not related to this border dispute,
but to an error made by the former Colonial Geographical Service, which
had attributed 91,000 km² to the territory due to an erroneous estimate
of the latitude of the sources of the Oyapock. The error was corrected
in the 1960s by the IGN.
French Guiana has an equatorial climate
and is essentially covered by an immense tropical forest bordered by
mangroves on the seaward side, the Guiana forest. The subsoil is made up
of an ancient rocky shield, rich in laterite, poor and acidic, which
forms a relief known as orange peel dotted with inselbergs and cut by
river networks. The latter have been the main circulation routes for
centuries or millennia. They constitute 7 river basins, 953 bodies of
water and are fed by 2.5 to 4 m of annual rainfall.
The relief of French Guiana was formed from an ancient bedrock
bordered by a coastal plain. Most of the region is located at an
altitude of between 100 and 200 meters, a sign of a very ancient
morphological and geomorphological evolution that gives rise to weak
topographic contrasts.
Two main topographical regions can be
distinguished:
the coastal plain or "lowlands" which extends for
several dozen kilometres from the maritime border. It represents about
450,000 ha covered by swamps and savannahs. It is an alluvial plain,
more or less floodable, with an altitude of less than 30 metres;
the highlands which develop on the Guyanese plateau and represent almost
95% of the territory. The absence of tectonic movements since the
primary era and the significant erosion suffered have sculpted several
relief forms of which the most important and characteristic is a convex
hill described as a half-orange, approximately circular, several tens of
metres high for a diameter of more than a kilometre. These half-oranges,
present in large numbers, give the highlands the appearance of a sea of
hills.
Guiana is located on the Guiana Plateau, which was formed on steep
terrain that disappeared under the action of erosion, leaving only a few
metamorphosed fragments in contact with the granite plutons. Today,
there are two geological groups: recent sedimentary formations and
Precambrian formations.
The absence of sedimentary cover, eroded
over time, reveals the Precambrian formations, each with its
characteristic landform: "almond-shaped hills" for the Orapu schists,
and a series of identical hills of the same height with convex slopes
for the Guiana granite. In addition to the influence on forestry
(stands, accessibility, etc.), geology explains the richness of various
minerals (gold, bauxite, tantalite, etc.) that are the basis of mining
activities in French Guiana, such as gold panning.
Salvation Islands (Îles du Salut)
Devil's Island (Île du Diable)
Royal Island (Île Royale)
Saint Joseph Island (Île Saint-Joseph)
Mount Bellevue de l'Inini (851 m)
Sommet Tabulaire (830 m)
Mitaraka Massif (690 m)
Mont Saint-Marcel (Mont Saint-Marcel, 637 m)
Dékou-Dékou Massif (580 m)
Precipitation is high in French Guiana. Precipitation is largely the
result of condensation of evapotranspiration from the rainforest trees.
It is naturally acidic (with a pH change that can evolve
significantly between dry and wet seasons)
French Guiana has a humid equatorial climate; the average temperature
is 25.5 °C. Annual precipitation averages 2816 mm in Cayenne over the
period 1981-2010, according to Meteo France records.
Cayenne has
a wet season from December to July and a drier period during the rest of
the year. Precipitation begins to decrease in July (155 mm), with
September and October being the "dry months" (39 and 51 mm on average
respectively), to increase again in November (105 mm). The rainiest
month is May, with an average rainfall of 518 mm.26
The rainiest
months are May and June.
Globally, French Guiana is one of the
wettest regions in the world, with rainfall ranging from 2000 mm to 4000
mm per year, and in terms of water availability compared to water
reserves it is the third in the world after the island of Greenland and
the state of Alaska.
The hydrography of the region is characterized by a dense network of
wetlands or periodically flooded streams (often meandering and with
banks of dense vegetation, interspersed with falls or drops). The
abundant rainfall, the structure of the terrain and the impermeability
of the soil explain the density and configuration of this hydrographic
network.
The large rivers, the Maroni, the Oyapock, the
Approuaguele Mana and the Sinnamary, are the axes of penetration into
the interior of the country. However, modern navigation is hampered by
the presence of falls and rapids that are impassable at low water levels
without transshipment. The Petit-Saut dam has greatly modified the
hydrography of part of the Sinnamary basin.
This department is one of the richest in the world in terms of biodiversity, both animal and plant.
Almost the entire surface of the Guiana forest is primary forest with
a very high level of biodiversity (one of the richest hotspots in the
world), protected by a national park, created in 2007, and six nature
reserves. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and
the European Union (EU) recommend special protection efforts.
Following the Grenelle Environment Forum in 2007, the Grenelle II bill
proposed (in 2009, and subject to amendments) the creation of a single
entity in French Guiana responsible for contributing to the
implementation of policies for knowledge and conservation of the
Amazonian natural heritage (with powers over fauna, flora, natural and
semi-natural terrestrial, riverine and coastal habitats, and ecosystem
functioning). It will contribute to the implementation of environmental
policies carried out by the State and territorial authorities and their
groups. Article 64 of the bill also provides for a "departmental mining
orientation plan" for French Guiana, which promotes mining compatible
with environmental protection requirements.
The coastal strip
environment is the one that, along RN 1, has historically undergone the
most changes, but a high level of artificialization has been observed
locally along RN 2 and in the places where gold miners operate in
western French Guiana.
Paradoxically, the rainforest of French
Guiana has thrived on one of the poorest soils in the world in terms of
nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and organic matter. Because of this, and
because this area has always served as a refuge for all its species
during dry periods or periods of terrestrial glaciation, this forest is
home to some of the richest and most fragile ecosystems in the world:
very old primary tropical forests, mangroves, savannahs, inselbergs and
numerous types of wetlands.
Soil acidity is also at the root of
the poor quality of French-Guiana soils. It forces farmers to lime their
fields, and has given rise to the traditional slash-and-burn method of
agriculture: the ashes help to raise the hydrogen potential (pH), as
well as providing mineral salts.
It should be noted, however,
that deposits of terra preta (anthropogenic soils) have been discovered
in the territory, particularly near the border with Brazil. Agents from
various disciplines are actively investigating how these rich soils on
the planet were created. It has been hypothesized that the very
existence of the rainforest is due to these intelligent human
interventions in the past (see the article Terra preta), where
slash-and-burn were replaced by logging and charcoal.
5,500 plant species have been recorded, including more than a
thousand trees, 700 bird species, 177 mammal species, more than 500 fish
species, 45% of which are endemic to the area (the "slime" and "scale"
fish) and 109 amphibian species. Microorganisms are even more numerous,
especially in the north, which rivals the Brazilian Amazon, Borneo and
Sumatra. This French department alone is home to at least 98% of
France's vertebrate fauna and 96% of its vascular plants.
Threats
to the ecosystem are fragmentation by roads, which remains very limited
compared to other forests in South America, the immediate and delayed
impacts of the EDF Petit-Saut dam, gold panning (Operation Harpie),
chaotic hunting and poaching (hunting of protected species), facilitated
by the creation of many tracks and the appearance of quad bikes.
Forest exploitation remains moderate due to the lack of roads, the
climate and the relief. An ordinance of 28 July 2005 extended the French
forestry code to French Guiana, but with important adaptations and
exceptions. In an approach that aims to be sustainable, local
authorities or other legal entities can grant concessions or free
concessions for use by people who traditionally derive their livelihood
from the forest, but the means used are no longer always traditional,
and the French-Guiana ecosystem is vulnerable, so the impacts of
exploitation or hunting could be significant.
Half of France's
biodiversity is found in French Guiana: 29% of plants, 55% of higher
vertebrates (mammals, birds, fish...) and up to 92% of insects. All this
in a single department of 83,846 km². A national park and six nature
reserves work to preserve environments and species as diverse as they
are unique.
The beaches of the Amana Nature Reserve, in the
western commune of Awala-Yalimapo, are an exceptional nesting site for
sea turtles. It is one of the most important in the world for the
leatherback turtle. As for the nature reserve on the island of Grand
Connétable, it is home to the only colony of seabirds between Tobago and
Fernando de Noronha, covering more than 3,000 km of coastline.
It is worth noting that, along with the equatorial forests of Africa
and Asia, it is one of the rare places in the world where indigenous
human civilizations do not seem to have caused the disappearance of
animal species for 10,000 to 30,000 years. It is the region of France
and Europe, and one of the regions of the world where the forest is
least fragmented by infrastructure.
However, on the outskirts of
cities and roads and on the coasts (especially in the west and in the
Hmong area of Cacao), nature is subject to human pressure and the
consequences of unsustainable development.
People settle in
"free" spaces and set up their slaughterhouses without any real control
by the authorities. In general, administrations are content to
regularise illegal situations after a few years, while official land
acquisition procedures are very slow and restrictive (for example, there
is the extreme case of files archived in the early 1970s that are about
to be concluded in 2007, even though the applicants have already died).
For example, the Amana nature reserve in French Guiana is supposed
to protect the most important nesting site for leatherback turtles in
the world, but many adult turtles are caught in driftnets set mainly by
Surinamese or Guyanese fishermen fishing illegally in Guyanese waters.
In 2006, two rangers from the Arataï association were killed by gold
prospectors near the Nouragues tourist camp. This double murder caused a
stir in French Guiana (demonstrations), but also in the entire
international scientific community because of the proximity of the CNRS
experimental station at Nouragues located not far away.
The
latter was attacked in 2004 by gold prospectors to steal equipment for
the installation of a new system for studying the forest. This isolated
station in the middle of the forest, which welcomes researchers from all
over the world, is now guarded by guards hired by the CNRS.
Logging remains modest in French Guiana. It is difficult because of
the lack of access (no road, no industrial port, no large sawmills or
paper mills) and the difficult climate, but the construction of an
east-west trans-Amazonian highway linking Cayenne to Saint-Georges de
l'Oyapock has made it possible to reach new massifs.
The methods
used by loggers are not respectful of the forest on many levels, and
this forest is fragile because of a humic layer that is often weak or
even almost non-existent, and because the bedrock is often impermeable.
Felling trees risks destroying the soil, just as the passage of heavy
machinery degrades it.
The forestry sector is not yet
sufficiently developed in French Guiana to have too great an impact. ONF
employees are trying to find acceptable solutions to the problem. The
forest tracks that serve the coastal forest massifs for logging are also
often used for other purposes: gold panning, hunting, etc.
The
climate is not conducive to animal husbandry or soybean crops, for which
it is necessary to deforest as in countries further north and south of
Guiana. In general, industrial agriculture is unproductive on these very
poor and acidic soils, sensitive to erosion.
Attempts to plant
trees have also failed. However, research is being done to develop the
cultivation of soybeans and corn to feed animals (currently everything
is imported). The development of sugar cane to meet the demand for
biofuels has also been suggested. In the Mana region there are only a
few large rice fields, but they are of lesser importance than in
Suriname.
French Guiana, and the unique tropical forest jewel in Europe that it
houses, suffer the consequences of gold mining. Thousands upon thousands
of illegal immigrants, mostly from disadvantaged regions of Brazil,
exploit the gold-rich subsoil, with all the problems that this entails:
pollution, deforestation, insecurity, etc.
The search for gold in
French Guiana is often anarchic and even illegal. It poses very serious
problems in terms of environmental degradation and the living and food
conditions of the indigenous populations, as well as of the gold miners.
Mercury from gold mining (illegal or not) spreads easily in the
humid and acidic environment, where it takes on a highly toxic form
(methylmercury) and is bioassimilable. Legal gold mining no longer uses
mercury after it was banned in 2006.
Several studies carried out
by the InVS and NGOs have shown that mercury is contaminating the Wayana
Amerindian populations in increasing doses, for whom fish is the main
source of protein (from 1994 to 2005). As early as 2001, a peer-reviewed
study coordinated by the IRD was carried out on the basis of questions
posed by the State services in French Guiana (DDASS, DIREN, DRIRE and
DSV). It reviewed the knowledge on the presence of mercury in the
Amazon, which is a cause for concern, and its effects on the environment
and health. It proposed a series of operational recommendations of local
and regional interest.
In coastal towns, the various districts are often grouped by ethnic
origin and level of wealth.
Concreting and artificialisation are
much less important than for other French overseas territories. In
French Guiana, it is limited to a few coastal towns of administrative or
economic importance (Cayenne, Kourou, etc.).
Very locally,
uncontrolled, even downright clandestine, urban development is taking
place, which is a cause of concern for local and national
administrations, and which is linked to illegal immigration, partly
encouraged by the high standard of living in the region and the rise in
the world price of gold.
Urban development requires the import of
materials and food from the metropolis, brought in mostly by air, which
greatly increases the ecological footprint of towns such as Kourou or
Cayenne.
The earthquakes listed below indicate the locality estimated to be
closest to the epicentre, as well as the intensity measured on the 1964
MSK scale, which ranges from 1 (tremor not felt but recorded by
instruments) to 12 (massive change in the landscape: cracks in the
ground, blocked valleys, displaced rivers, etc.).
June 1774, in
Cayenne, earthquake of intensity 6.
August 4, 1885 in Montagnes de
Kaw (Cayenne), intensity 6.5.
April 3, 1899 on the border between
Guyana and Brazil (E. de Saint-George), intensity 3.5.
30 May 1933 in
Saül, intensity 7.
17 September 1949 on the Guyana-Brazilian border,
Amapa territory (Oïapoque), intensity 5.
25 April 1951 on the
Guyana-Brazilian border (W. Saint-George), intensity 5.
8 June 2006
at 4:29 p.m. in Cayenne, earthquake intensity 5.
In 2014, the book Les abandonnés de la république was published,
which recounts the contamination of the environment with mercury by
illegal gold miners. The health of the local population, whose
livelihood depends largely on fishing, is said to be at risk. According
to the World Wildlife Fund, 12,000 hectares of the Amazon rainforest in
French Guiana have been damaged by this illegal activity.
The
search for mines and sources of liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons off the
coast of French Guiana is another threat to tourism and fishing (the
third sector of the Guyanese economy). Total submitted a permit called
"Guyane Maritime" in 2011, which was granted in September 2017 and then
extended by the government until June 2019.
In mid-May 2018,
Total submitted an application for an exploration drilling permit; the
Environmental Authority asked it to complete its impact study to better
assess the impact of a possible accident (well blowout, contaminants
present in drilling mud, noise pollution caused by blasting...) and to
clarify its "still very partial" approach of avoiding, reducing and
compensating, based on feedback from the explosion of BP's Deepwater
Horizon oil platform, for example.
Since 2016, mining permits
have multiplied. In May 2018, nearly 300,000 hectares were already
affected by mining activities or mining research projects.
Guiana's maritime space is very little explored, allowing its waters to
host a particularly rich biodiversity, including many species of
dolphins and whales. However, a few kilometres further south, in
Brazilian waters, oil companies are planning to drill underground, which
worries environmentalists.
French Guiana's architecture originally includes Amerindian architecture, Creole architecture and Bushinenge architecture. These architectures are mixed with modern architectural styles.
The Amerindian habitat traditionally focuses on the construction of carbets. They change shape according to the regions and the different ethnic groups present in the Guyanese territory. They can be built on the ground or on stilts. The traditional Wayana carbets are very popular thanks to the Maluana, which is a sky-blue box, used to decorate the dome of the Tukusipan (community carbet).
Creole architecture, originating in the colonial era, was born in the 17th century. It is made up of Creole houses, locally called case (kaz in Guyanese Creole), built with locally made clay, sand, local wood, metal and cement.
Between the 18th and 19th centuries, the black maroon populations developed a remarkable architecture. Initially inspired by Amerindian architecture, it has increasingly moved away from it to create a unique style, marked by the African origin of these peoples. The traditional habitat of the Boni is recognised by the use of Tembé art, typical of these peoples.
Guiana has a large number of museums.
Alexandre-Franconie
Departmental Museum, (Musée départemental Alexandre-Franconie) located
in Cayenne.
Museum of Guyanese Cultures, (Musée des cultures
guyanaises) in Cayenne.
House of Cultures and Memories of French
Guiana (Maison des cultures & des mémoires de la Guyane), composed of
two buildings. One in Cayenne, the other in Remire-Montjoly.
House-Museum of Félix Éboué, (Maison-Musée de Félix Éboué) in Cayenne.
Space Museum, (Musée de l'Espace) at the Guiana Space Center, in Kourou.
Museum of the Royal Island (Musée de l'île Royale), in the Salvation
Islands.
Museum of the Transportation Camp (Musée du Camp de la
Transportation) in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni
Montsinéry-Tonnegrande
Ecomuseum, (Écomusée de Montsinéry-Tonnegrande), in
Montsinéry-Tonnegrande.
Le Planeur bleu de Cacao, in Roura.
Approuague-kaw Ecomuseum (Écomusée d'Approuague-kaw), in Kaw.
Local crafts are highly valued by the general public. Each ethnic community participates in its development. Tembe art, the art of the Bushinengue people, is one of the most recognized in French Guiana. The Boni also make carved wooden objects from the area: such as breastplates, combs, folding benches, tables, etc. The Amerindians and Creoles make pottery, beads and seeds from the forest (necklaces) and basketry: sieves, fans, baskets. Gold, seeds and leaves of the Amazonian palm and other things native to this territory are used to make jewelry and other objects.
French-Guiana literature includes all works written by local authors
or people connected with French Guiana. It is expressed both in French
and in French Guiana Creole.
Guiana literature is a literature
closely related to that of the French Antilles: especially with the
Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe. For some, it is a
literature of the Antilles-Guiana in relation to the themes addressed,
which are mainly related to slavery and other social problems. Thus,
this literature takes several forms. First of all, oral tradition,
because it is a characteristic element of French-Guiana literature, as
in many black American countries. In relation to this, we can take into
account tales, legends, fables and, in a different way, novels.
French Guiana in the 19th century is marked by a weak presence of
writers. At that time, writers only published a few scattered poems in
local newspapers. However, it is difficult to trace the writings of some
Franco-Guianese poets today: Ho-A-Sim-Elosem, Munian, R. Octaville, etc.
Two Guyanese poets are the exception. According to Ndagano (1996),
Ismaÿl Urbain and Fabien Flavien would be considered the first
Franco-Guianese poets. However, Alfred Parépou is a writer who marked
his era with his work Atipa (1885).
The period from 1900 to 1950
constitutes an important stage of Franco-Guianese literature insofar as
it gave birth to numerous writers who had a considerable impact, such as
those of the Negritude (Négritude).
The generation of
Franco-Guianese writers of the 1950s and 1960s stands out for writing
about the black cause. Serge Patient and Elie Stephenson have addressed
this issue in their writings.
Since 1970, different generations
of writers have become aware of the black cause or slavery. Whether
through their writings or their political activities, they take into
account this painful period which had serious consequences for local
society and the black world in general. For this generation, Christiane
Taubira remains the figure. Other writers are interested in other types
of themes, such as regional nature, etc.
Carnival is one of the most important events in French Guiana.
Considered the longest in the world, it takes place on Sunday afternoon,
between Epiphany in early January and Ash Wednesday in February or
March. Groups dressed according to the theme of the year, parade around
decorated floats, to the rhythm of percussion and brass. The preparation
of the groups lasts months before the carnival. The groups parade in
front of thousands of spectators who gather on the sidewalks and stands
arranged for the occasion.
Brazilians, groups identical to those
found at the Rio Carnival, are also appreciated for their rhythms and
their seductive costumes. The Chinese community of Cayenne also
participates in the parades, bringing its originality with the dragons.
Then, at the beginning of the evening, the Touloulous, typical
characters of the French-Guiana carnival, go to the discos to take part
in the famous Masked Balls.
French-Guiana gastronomy is rich in the different cultures that blend
together in French Guiana. Creole restaurants rub shoulders with Chinese
ones in the big cities such as Cayenne, Kourou and
Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. The local culinary art originally brought
together the cuisines of Guiana, Creole, Bushinengue and Native
American.
All these cuisines have several ingredients in common:
Mandioca;
Smoked meats and fish.
At Easter, locals eat the
region's most emblematic dish, Caldo de awara.
As traditional drinks, you can find in French Guiana the local Saint-Maurice Rum (la Belle Cabresse, Féfé, La Cayennaise, Cœur de Chauffe, Or Blanc, etc.), Cachiri (Amerindian beer), Bita or bitters (based on medicinal plants), sorrel syrup, Creole chocolate (cocoa, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon), Planteur, various punches (coconut punch, comou punch, chocolate punch, peanut punch, wasaï punch, passion fruit punch, matador punch), Ti-punch and the well-known comou juice, wasaï juice (both made from Amazonian palm fruits).
Desserts include Creole creams, locally called Angou or Matété, all kinds of jams, preserves (coconut pastille), Couac coco (fine sweetened semolina), Crétique (candied coconut with ginger), Galette créole (also called Galette Guyanaise), sorrel jelly, Lotcho (coconut pulp candy), Sorbets (coconut, pistachio, peanuts, comou), Lafoufou bannann (banana salad), Eggs in milk, Lanmou chinwè, Americano (local cake), Bendenngwèl, Kontès, Dizé milé (fritter), Dokonon (cake poached in foil), Gâteau cramanioc (manioc pudding), Massepain, Mont-blanc, Sispa (cake), etc.
French is the official language of Guyana, but many other local
languages are also used. Despite the status of French, Franco-Guiana
Creole remains by far the most widely spoken language in society. This
language, based on French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, African and
Amerindian languages, is said to have originated in the 17th century
among African slaves and their French masters trying to communicate. It
is sometimes mixed with the other creole languages of immigrant
communities in Martinique (Martiniquan Creole), Guadeloupe (Guadeloupean
Creole) and Haiti (Haitian Creole)...
Six Bushi Konde languages
(of the Black Maroons), are spoken by the Franco-Guiana Busi-Nengue or
Surinamese (Surinamese for the French Academy): Boni, Saramaca,
Paramaca, Djuka, Mataray, Kwenty, Aluku.
The other regional
languages are six of the seven Amerindian languages (Arawaka,
Palikur, Kali'na, Wayana, Wayãpi, Emerillon) as well as Hmong (a Lao
language). The Apalai language, spoken by a few speakers, is not
officially recognised.
Finally, the other communities that make
up a significant part of the population speak Portuguese, English,
Chinese, Spanish, etc. on a daily basis.
French Guiana Creole is
a language that has been spoken since the times when there were slaves
and settlers. But the conditions for the formation of French Guiana
Creole were very different from those of Antillean Creole, on the one
hand due to conflicts between the French, British, Dutch, Portuguese and
Spanish, and on the other hand, French dialects such as Kadi greatly
influenced Guiana Creole, making it very different from Martinican,
Haitian, Saint Lucian and Guadeloupean Creole. In the Brazilian
territory of Amapá, bordering French Guiana, this creole is often
confused with Karipuna, another creole. However, Guyanese Creole is
widely spoken and understood in Amapá.
Therefore, there are some
words in French-Guiana Creole that are common to West Indian Creoles,
but there are a number of words that make them significantly different.
In addition, the French-Guianans pronounce the phoneme /ʁ/ as in
standard French, while in the Antilles the pronunciation tends to be
closer to the semi-vowel [w].
In 2010, the general council of the department of French Guiana adopted a flag for the department of French Guiana. However, the higher regional council did not recognize this change. In 2015, when both bodies were dissolved, the assembly of French Guiana was established, which established a new symbol for the recognition of this department. On the other hand, only the French flag is officially recognised by the French constitution as the national flag.
The first stamp specific to French Guiana dates from 1886, it is an
Alphée type stamp and is overprinted with the inscription "December
1886, Guy Franc".
Until 1902, French Guiana used stamps of the
French or colonial series with a specific overprint.
From 1904,
stamps specific to French Guiana were issued with the inscription
"Guyane Française".
The last stamps with the inscription "French
Guiana" were issued in 1947. After this date, the stamps of mainland
France were used.
In the radio and television sector, Guyane 1ère, the local subsidiary
of France Télévisions, has a strong presence: There are also television
channels typical of metropolitan France (France 2, France 3 Toutes
Régions, France 4, France 5, France 24, France Ô, arte), also adapted to
the local time zone (Canal+ Guyane), as well as other independent local
channels (KTV Guyane, CanalSat Caraïbes, until 2010 also Antenne Créole
Guyane) and some foreign channels (such as programmes from the Brazilian
channel Globo).
As for radio, in addition to the aforementioned
Guyane 1ère, there are also NRJ Guyane and Trace.FM.
As for the
press, the main local newspaper is France-Guyane, while La semaine
guyanaise, a weekly magazine that also gives a lot of space to
television programming and commercials, is also very popular. There is
also a bi-monthly information magazine on the demands of the Amerindian
community, called OKRA.MAG.
The coastal area has access to the
Internet via an ADSL line: there are currently plans to provide Internet
access to all municipalities in the department, thanks to the use of
satellites and wi-fi hotspots. The local national top-level domain is
.gf, but most local sites tend to use the .fr domain.
The
telephone network is also present and well established in homes in the
coastal area, while inland areas rely on telephone booths (absent in
Montsinéry-Tonnegrande and Saül, as well as in Amerindian and Maroon
communities) and satellite telephony, the presence of which is mandatory
in schools.
Sport in Guyana dates back to long before the colonial period.
Popularized from the 19th century onwards, the first sporting
competition organised to commemorate the 14th of July was held in 1890.
At that time, there were already physical activities favourable to the
inhabitants of this Amazonian territory, but also sports from Europe,
which favoured the colonisers. There were: foot races, donkey races,
canoe races, bicycle races, tricycle races, nautical regattas in the
ports and traditional popular games.
The most popular sport in
Guyana today is football, followed by basketball, cycling, swimming and
handball, although in the department there are some canoeing, judo,
Brazilian jiu-jitsu, aikido, karate, fencing, horse riding, rowing and
volleyball clubs.
The French Guiana national football team is the representative team
of French Guiana in football and has its own regional league called the
French Guiana Football League. The French Guiana regional league was
established in October 1962. It is not currently affiliated with FIFA,
but it has been affiliated with the FFF since 27 April 1963 and has been
an associate member of CONCACAF (North, Central America and the
Caribbean League) since 1978.
Despite being geographically
located on the South American subcontinent, local sports authorities
chose to participate in the competition where most of the countries and
territories dependent on the Caribbean area are located, and not in
CONMEBOL as it would be required in terms of geography.
In April
2013, the LFG became a full member of CONCACAF. The French Guiana
national football team, also known as Yana Dòkò, is a selection of the
best French-Guiana players under the auspices of the French Guiana
Football League. It is not recognised by FIFA, but participates in
CONCACAF competitions. They played their first match against Dutch
Guiana (now Suriname) in 1936, losing 1-3. Their biggest win was on 26
September 2012 against Saint Pierre and Miquelon (11-1) and their
biggest loss was also against Dutch Guiana, losing 9-0 on 2 March 1947.
The local team has participated in events such as the CONCACAF
Nations Cup / Gold Cup, Caribbean Nations Cup (between 1978-2017),
CONCACAF Nations League, Overseas Cup (Coupe de l'Outre-Mer, 2008-2012)
and the Tournament of the 4 (Tournoi des 4)
Guiana's two main swimming clubs are the Megaquarius club and the
Cercle Nageurs de Cayenne (CNC).
For several years, the
Megaquarius Club Guyane has won most of the Guyanese championships
thanks to its swimmers.
The Guyane Swimming League has also
signed a partnership with Suriname to organise more competitions between
these two countries, especially the Amazonian championship.
The Tour of French Guiana (locally: Tour de Guyane), formerly known
as "Le Tour du Littoral" (the Tour of the Coast) or more rarely as "La
Grande Boucle Guayanaise", is a cycling stage race that takes place
mainly in French Guiana each year, although it occasionally passes
through neighbouring countries.
It takes place in nine stages,
with a route linking the main cities of the department: Cayenne, Kourou,
and Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. It was created in 1950 and is organised by
the Comité Régional de Cyclisme de la Guyane (French Guiana Cycling
Committee).
The Tour has been international since 1978. Over the
years it has gained in importance and popularity and its duration has
increased. Participation has gone from a predominantly French-Guyanese
group in the first editions to editions with more than 10 different
nationalities. The 2020 edition of the Tour could not be held due to the
Covid-19 pandemic. This is also the case for the Tour in 2021.
The law of 2 March 1982 established the creation of the region as a
fully-fledged territorial community.
Since 2016, it has been
endowed with a single assembly which brings together the powers of the
regional and departmental councils.
It is represented at the
national level by two deputies, a senator and an economic and social
councillor. The State is represented by the prefect based in Cayenne and
by the sub-prefect of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni.
French Guiana is an administrative region whose prefecture is
Cayenne. Together with Guadeloupe and Martinique, located in the
Antilles, it forms the French Departments of America (départements
français d'Amérique or DFA).
French Guiana has elected a single
assembly since the French-Guiana people approved, in a referendum held
on 24 January 2010,18 the merger of the regional council and the general
council into a single assembly or single collectivity.
At the
communal level, there are 22 municipalities headed by mayors. Some of
these municipalities, such as Maripasoula and Camopi, have a surface
area larger than that of the metropolitan departments. In addition, some
municipalities are subdivided into villages supervised by captains.
In addition, French Guiana is represented at the national level by
two deputies (see constituencies) and two senators.
It is also
the largest of the nine outermost regions of the European Union, of
which it constitutes an overseas region.
Since 1 January 2012,
French Guiana has again had its own court of appeal, abolished in 1947,
with its own public prosecutor's office. From 1947 to 2012, cases were
handled by the Court of Appeal of Fort-de-France in Martinique, more
than 2000 km from Cayenne. The first president of this new court of
appeal, Pierre Gouzenne, took office on 1 January 2012, previously
president of the court of first instance in Avignon. The public
prosecutor who took office on 1 January 2012 was Raymond Morey,
previously public prosecutor in Nancy.
There is also a completely
autonomous administrative court. Although there was already a specific
administrative court, it was initially composed of magistrates from
Fort-de-France (as is currently the case in Saint Pierre and Miquelon).
However, the court gradually became autonomous with the assignment of
one, and then two magistrates in permanent residence. There are now four
magistrates, including a president, so that the court is fully
autonomous.
French Guiana is divided into three administrative divisions named
after their capital cities:
Cayenne District
Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni District
Saint-Georges District
These
districts are in turn divided into 22 communes:
Awala-Yalimapo
Mana
Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni
Apatou
Grand-Santi
Papaïchton
Saül
Maripasoula
Camopi
Saint-Georges-de-l'Oyapock
Ouanary
Régina
Roura
Saint-Élie
Iracoubo
Sinnamary
Kourou
Macouria
Montsinéry-Tonnegrande
Matoury
Cayenne
Remire-Montjoly
Three political tendencies share French-Guyanese political life. The
two main political forces remain, as in the rest of France, the loyal
right, represented by Les Républicains, and the loyal left, represented
by the Guyanese Socialist Party (PSG), the Forces Democratiques de
Guiana (FDG), the Parti Socialiste (PS) and Guyane Écologie (GE).
However, this "loyal left" is now facing strong competition from La
France insoumise. Finally, the third political tendency is the far left,
represented by the Movement for Decolonisation and Social Emancipation
(MDES) and the Walwari (PRG).
The France Insoumise movement is
represented in Guyana by eight Action Groups (GA or GdA). Jean-Luc
Mélenchon's first result in the 2017 presidential election and the
movement's support for Davy Rimane's candidacy in the March 2018
legislative by-elections have enabled La France insoumise to position
itself as a new force of the left in the region.
Since 1 October 2013, the commander of the armed forces in French
Guiana is Air Force Major General Philippe Adam. There are 2,300
soldiers.
These forces are mainly distributed in the following
units:
3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment (3rd REI) in Kourou (Foreign
Legion);
9th Marine Infantry Regiment (9e RIMa) in Cayenne, in La
Madeleine
the adapted military service regiment of French Guiana
located in Saint-Jean-du-Maroni, with a detachment in Cayenne;
the
air force based at the 367 air base near Félix-Eboué airport;
the
French Navy based at the Dégrad des Cannes naval base;
a detachment
of the Paris fire brigade in Kourou, which ensures the protection of
people and property at the Space Centre
The main traditional industries are fishing (which accounted for 5%
of exports in 2012), mining (32%) and timber (1%). In addition, the
Guiana Space Centre has played an important role in the local economy
since its establishment in Kourou in 1964: in 2002 it contributed
directly and indirectly 16% of French Guiana's GDP - down from 26% in
1994, thanks to the diversification of the national economy. The Guiana
Space Centre employs 1,659 people in 2012.
In terms of currency,
the French Guiana franc circulated alongside the French franc until
2002. Today, the euro circulates. As part of France, it is part of the
European Union and its common market.
The economic situation in
French Guiana is difficult, with a high unemployment rate of 20.6% and
an import-export coverage rate of 13.4% in 2007. Social transfers play a
major role in the economy.
However, since 2004 there has been
strong growth supported by the increase in space activity and the
construction sector. The industrial and mining sectors are also growing
to a lesser extent. The unemployment rate is constantly falling, from
27.6% in 2006 to 20.6% in 2007. Public and, above all, private
investment rates are increasing, which demonstrates the beginnings of
the autonomy of the French Guiana economy.
The demographics of
French Guiana, with a young and rapidly growing population, represent a
major challenge for the French Guiana economy.
In 2009, the usable agricultural area was estimated at 24,570
hectares. Two types of agriculture coexist in French Guiana:
Traditional manual agriculture, present throughout the territory, with
more than 80% of farmers practising it on one third of the usable
agricultural area.
Mechanised agriculture for commercial purposes
located on the coastal strip, in particular by members of the Hmong
ethnic group in Roura (Cacao town) for fruits and vegetables.
Difficulties in accessing land remain a major problem for farmers, given
that 90% of the land is privately owned by the State.
In 2009,
local meat production covered 24% of the needs of the pig sector (441
tonnes in 2009), and 20% of the beef sector (303 tonnes in 2009). The
farms are mainly located in the municipality of Macouria. There is only
one slaughterhouse in French Guiana, in Rémire-Montjoly. To process the
volumes from western Guiana, a project is underway to build a
slaughterhouse and a processing plant for vegetable production in Mana,
scheduled to open in the second half of 2011, with an estimated cost of
around one million euros for each facility. The poultry sector is
seeking a partnership for the creation of a slaughterhouse.
Sugar
cane is grown for rum production in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, at the last
distillery in French Guiana.
Rice is grown in the polders grouped together in the commune of Mana. All farms represent around 4,000 hectares, with yields varying between 4 and 5 tonnes per hectare. Rice is consumed locally and exported to Suriname and the Caribbean. In recent years, rice production has declined due to phytosanitary attacks.
French Guiana's main natural resource is wood. In fact, the forest
covers 95% of the territory, i.e. more than 8 million hectares. It is
made up of more than 1,200 species of trees, including many precious
woods used in carpentry. This vegetation is difficult to access due to
the lack of forest tracks and its lush nature. Almost all of the forest
is privately owned by the State and is managed by the French Guiana
Amazon Park and the National Forest Office. The total area reserved for
production is 2.4 million hectares managed by the latter. Angelica,
gompholo, grignon franc, balata franc, amaranth, jaboty and green ebony
are some of the most harvested species.
According to the French
Guiana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the sector has about 210
companies (2009), employing nearly 900 people. After a decline between
2004 and 2007, the volume of logs collected has increased in the last
two years, from 55,946 m³ in 2007 to 84,300 m³ in 2009. 80% of sawmill
production is absorbed by the construction industry, and secondary
processing (furniture) absorbs the remainder of production, which is
sold on the local market and covers only a small amount of needs for
manufactured products.
In French Guiana, it is an industrial activity, with shrimp and
snapper fishing. The boats unload their catches at the port of Larivot,
the ninth largest fishing port in France. Shrimp fishing is suffering
from the cessation of activity of the large companies in the sector due
to a restructuring of the industry.
There is also artisanal
fishing, which is carried out in all the towns and cities along the
coast.
The industrial fabric is made up of small and medium-sized companies
and some large companies, and is dominated by the space sector and
construction.
In 2012, spring water was bottled for the first
time in Montsinéry-Tonnegrande on the initiative of Bernard Lama, a
former international footballer. It is distributed under the name Dilo.
The Guiana Space Centre is located in the commune of Kourou. This is
where the Arianes have been assembled and launched since 1979.
The prospects for the Soyuz launcher, with a launch pad in the commune
of Sinnamary, and the new Vega launcher, suggest a strong development of
space activity.
However, the weight of the space sector in the
local economy is decreasing due to the diversification of the local
economy. Thus, in 1994, this sector as a whole, i.e. the contractors of
the Guiana Space Centre (CNES, ESA and Arianespace) and their local
subcontractors, represented 26% of the French-Guiana GDP. In 2003, it
was around 16%.
Construction is the sector that benefits most from the economic growth of the department. The sector is driven by a strong demand for new housing due to high population growth. The sector is favoured by a sustained public order (Guiana's road network, public buildings, etc.) and a dynamic space sector (new Soyuz launch pad).
Gold mining is the second largest export activity in French Guiana,
with more than 50 million euros exported in 2006. The search for gold
has attracted gold seekers, especially in rivers and "placers". This
activity is a vector of insecurity and illegal immigration from Brazil,
despite the actions undertaken by the State to curb the phenomenon
(Operation Anaconda in French Guiana). Since March 2008, "harpy"
operations have been launched, with, among other things, nine crossing
points on roads and rivers, which are under permanent surveillance by
the gendarmerie.
Gold is legally extracted by local companies in
a dozen sites, mainly alluvial, and an attempt to put the Camp Cayman
gold deposit into production was stopped by the French government in
2008. The Montagne d'Or project is the largest industrial project in
development in 2017 and aims at the exploitation of primary gold.
The economy of French Guiana is expected to change significantly in
the coming years with the recent discovery of oil fields 150 km off the
coast.
Administrations are the largest providers of employment in French Guiana. Also noteworthy is the Andrée Rosemon Hospital Centre, which employs 1,467 people.
In French Guiana, this sector is dominated by restaurants and food
distribution businesses run by Chinese traders. It should be noted that
most of these businesses are small mini-markets and grocery stores (less
than 300 m²), known locally as chines. However, in recent years, the
commercial equipment offer in French Guiana has tended to diversify.
This has resulted in the opening of a hypermarket in Cayenne in 2005
(under the name Cora, which became Géant Casino in 2010), the
construction of the Montjoly shopping centre in 2008, and the Super U in
Cayenne. It should be noted that from 2011 onwards, the French-Guianan
shopping landscape underwent a profound change with the opening of the
Carrefour hypermarket and its shopping centre in the Collery area. In
2013, the "Family Plaza" shopping centre was opened, which includes a
Ciné Village multiplex (six screens, including two 3D screens),
franchise stores and a gymnasium of more than 1,000 m². In 2014-2015, a
second Carrefour hypermarket, a shopping centre with around 15 shops, a
medical centre and an Ibis hotel will be built around the Bois Chaudat
lake, in the space city of Kourou.
There is a small ecotourism activity, far removed from the mass tourism of Martinique and Guadeloupe. The activity is in the process of being structured with the creation of the French Guiana Amazon Park at the beginning of 2007 and the programming of major projects. French Guiana has real tourist potential with the Îles du Salut and the Kaw Marshes Nature Reserve, but suffers from a poor image of the department in the media and in the minds of the people (Green Hell).
French Guiana has an estimated population of 301,099 inhabitants,
which represents the lowest population density in the outermost region
of the European Union. The average age of the population is less than 58
years. According to 2012 estimates, five localities exceeded 20,000
residents, most of them located in the north of the region. These were:
the capital Cayenne (77,231 inhabitants), Matoury (40,766),
Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (31,898), Kourou (31,143) and Remire-Montjoly
(23,946). However, the Cayenne metropolitan area (which includes most of
the municipalities of Matoury and Remire-Montjoly) has around 130,000
inhabitants.
The inhabitants have a mix of cultures, due to the
constant colonisations in the past centuries. The main inhabitants are:
The Maroons: Black slaves from French Guiana and Surinam who rebelled
and fled the plantations between the 17th and 19th centuries to take
refuge in the forests and rivers. They have a monopoly on the business
of rowing across the Maroni River.
The Creoles: Natives of Guiana
with predominantly Afro-descendant features. They are the majority
workforce in manual jobs and services. They make up approximately 40% of
the total population.
The Metropolitans: Inhabitants who come from
metropolitan France. They are the technicians and engineers at the Space
Base and in almost all French companies. They fill the main positions in
education, health and environmental development.
The Miao: They come
from Laos. They arrived in 1977.
The Brazilians: They arrived in
search of work. They come mostly from the northeast of Brazil (Macapa).
They are abundant labor in the search and extraction of gold. They also
work in construction and in the service sector.
Although
Brazilians comprise the largest Ibero-American community in French
Guiana, they are not the only one, as there are also natives from Peru,
Colombia and the Dominican Republic. In many cases, although the
majority of arrivals are for economic reasons, there are also a large
number of Ibero-Americans and Africans who come to the region seeking
political asylum.
Approximately 41,000 people or 14% of the
population of French Guiana is of European descent. The vast majority of
them are of French descent, although there are also people of Dutch,
British, Spanish and Portuguese descent.
In the jungle area of
Brazil bordering Guyana, several towns are growing illegally, favoured
among other things by the proximity to the Eurozone.
French Guiana has two higher education institutions, the Academy of
French Guiana (locally known as Académie de la Guyane) and the
University of French Guiana (in French called Université de Guyane). The
university is historically part of the University of the West Indies and
Guyana (université des Antilles et de la Guyane), as there was
previously an academy for the West Indies and Guyana, before it was
split into three separate academies for Guadeloupe, French Guiana and
Martinique on 1 January 1997.
The University of French Guiana has
2034 students on two campuses:
The Pôle universitaire guyanais
(Guiana University Pole) Troubira campus in Cayenne;
The IUT
(Bois-Chaudat campus) in Kourou.
The Academy of French Guiana is
an educational district, headed by a rector. It brings together the
school complexes of the department of French Guiana.
The
rectorate is located in the capital, the city of Cayenne.
The
educational system of French Guiana is particularly unique because this
region is faced with many special situations. The decision to fully
integrate it into metropolitan France through departmentalisation
required adaptation and this is faced with the fact of an obvious
geographical and cultural distance and its identification with an
Amazonian environment, which contribute to the formation of a
differentiated local identity.
In 2013, new public educational
reform policies were launched throughout the country to address the
problems facing French Guiana. The quality and equity of education are
the most important issues, which are considered to require particular
attention in the inland and remote river regions of the region, where
educational services are noted to be below French national standards.
French Guiana has half as many general practitioners and three times
as many specialists as mainland France. It has only 37 intensive care
beds for 283,000 inhabitants.
Malaria and dengue (with
haemorrhagic forms since the early 1990s, sometimes fatal) are highly
prevalent in French Guiana. Yellow fever is also a major risk, as is
tuberculosis.
In many communities, there are difficulties in
accessing drinking water and some river water intakes intended to supply
the drinking water network may not be operational in certain years due
to saline intrusions from the Atlantic Ocean (the "saline front" and its
seasonal evolution have been observed by the BRGM in Mana and Maroni in
order to model them and better anticipate this phenomenon).
Lack
of access to the drinking water network increases the risk of infectious
enteric diseases. French Guiana is also the department where the
prevalence of HIV/AIDS is highest. According to the ARS in 2012, "the
Caribbean is the second region in the world most affected by HIV/AIDS
after Africa."
In 2012, infant mortality from infectious and
parasitic diseases (even excluding AIDS) was the highest in France, much
higher than in mainland France (it was 551 per 100,000 in French Guiana,
compared to a rate of 182 in mainland France, according to a study by
Drees and Inserm. Perinatal mortality and maternal mortality are higher
than in other overseas departments.
Visitors are required to be
vaccinated against yellow fever regardless of the length of their stay.
As in all tropical areas, parasites are numerous. Among others, we
can mention the agouti louse.
The Covid-19 pandemic reached
French Guiana, bordering Brazil, in April 2020 (where the epidemic
reached significant proportions in early May). Measures Barrier measures
promoted by France and the World Health Organization (WHO) were deployed
on the territory with contact tracing of all confirmed cases, and the
removal of contacts to examine the sick, and the quarantine of confirmed
cases and their contacts (with accommodation in a hotel if the patient
does not meet the conditions for isolation). Mass isolation was put in
place for certain groups. Decontamination began on May 11, 2020.
As of April 2021, there have been 2,283 recoveries and 90 deaths since
the start of the pandemic. In April 2021, two adults died of a severe
form of Covid-19 several weeks after receiving their second dose of the
Pfizer vaccine.
Poor and acidic soils promote the bioavailability and circulation of
heavy metals, in particular mercury, used for decades in gold panning,
and lead (source of lead poisoning).
Surveys conducted by CIRE
and ARS in western French Guiana (between Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni and
Mana) revealed "high levels of lead impregnation in some inhabitants (in
one village, 48% of all inhabitants (21/44) and 93% of children under 7
years of age (13/14) had a blood lead level above 100 μg/L (the
threshold for the definition of lead poisoning in France), and other
analyses" and studies confirmed a problem that could "affect the whole
of French Guiana and neighbouring countries (Suriname, Brazil)". In
2015, the available evidence points to a food source for this lead.
And it was observed that among pregnant women, "blood lead levels and
the proportion of participants with elevated blood lead levels increase
with age".
Poverty, low level of education, having prepared couac
during pregnancy or having eaten some Hunting or drinking rainwater
(rather than tap or bottled water) and speaking Nenge Tongo were
associated with higher blood lead levels (raising the possible role of a
tradition of geophagy, but a causal relationship could not be clearly
demonstrated). In addition, women living upstream of the Maroni River
are more affected than those living downstream.
The main religion practised is Christianity, with the Catholic Church
being the most important church with 78% of the population. French
Guiana is part of France and is a French department, but benefits from a
special regime: the 1905 law on the separation of Church and State is
still not applied in French Guiana, which remains under the regime of
the royal decree of Charles X of 27 August 1828: the Catholic clergy is
supported by the General Council.
Another provision of the
ordinance of King Charles X, which was also not repealed by the
departmentalisation of French Guiana, provides that the State maintains
Catholic places of worship. In short, the principles of the
Constitutional Charter of 4 June 1814, according to which the Catholic
religion is "the religion of the State", remain in force in French
Guiana.
In fact, in 1911, when the 1905 law was extended to the
Antilles and the African island of Réunion, part of the local political
class opposed any modification. The Colonial Commission issued a
negative opinion, although it was not competent in the matter.
Since then, the question has been raised several times, notably in 1970,
when a post of Protestant pastor was created in Kourou, and when a
Muslim imam was appointed in French Guiana. For the moment, no political
decision has called this status into question, nor has it been extended
to other religions. This specificity was not called into question by the
Mandel decrees of 1939. But the administration, arguing that these cults
have never been recognised by law in French Guiana, responded negatively
to the request for remuneration.
After deciding to stop paying
the Catholic clergy at the end of April 2014, the General Council was
ordered to resume this payment by the administrative court of Guiana.
In terms of religion, the French-Guianans are closer to the peoples
of Latin America. Among the Creoles of French Guiana, the practice of
the Catholic religion has long been marked by popular beliefs that admit
a purely Latin American Catholicism.
In the course of colonial
history, the religiosity of the Creoles took many of its features from
the Catholic personalities who helped found the colony, such as Sister
Anne Marie Javouhey. The reception of the sacraments, the practice of
prayer, devotion to certain saints, funeral rites, the feast of the Holy
Spirit, are all tinged with beliefs recorded over the centuries.
Although the Christian community is made up of various Protestant
groups, the number of Protestants in the latest statistical studies on
national profiles of 2020 estimates Protestant denominations at 4.7% of
the population, with Baptists and Presbyterians being the most important
groups, and the largest Christian confessions after the Catholic Church.
This can be justified by the succession of colonizations that this
territory has experienced and by its proximity to the Latin countries of
South America. Muslims, Hindus and Jews remain a very small minority.
Protestantism had Protestant immigrants in the 16th century such as the
Huguenots, after the religious persecution that prevailed in France.
This later produced the same suspicion in the Guianas which almost led
to the elimination of Protestants. French Guiana is one of the first
places where the Protestant Reformation came under persecuted believers
in France or under merchants.
The transport system in French Guiana is lacking compared to metropolitan France, being more developed in the coastal area of the territory, while the inland municipalities are poorly connected and often difficult to access, many of them being totally or partially isolated from Cayenne.
French Guiana has about 2,200 km of roads, which are divided into:
The national roads (440 km), divided into RN1, RN2, RN3 and RN4 (the
last two downgraded to departmental roads during Raffarin's mandate),
which connect the main coastal towns, forming a corridor that crosses
the coastal strip from the border with Suriname to that of Brazil: The
RN1, completed in the 1990s, links Cayenne to Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni,
passing through the municipalities of Macouria, Kourou, Sinnamary (the
stretch of road between Kourou and Sinnamary is locally called Route de
l'espace, "space highway") and Iracoubo, while the RN2 runs from Cayenne
to Saint-Georges-de-l'Oyapock, where it continues on the BR-156 across
the bridge over the Oyapock. Today, all rivers are crossed by road using
bridges, some of which are quite long (for example, the bridge over the
Cayenne River is 1,225 m long), whereas until 2004 (the year of
completion and inauguration of the Approuague bridge) many rivers were
crossed by canoes and barges. Transport on national roads is restricted
during the rainy season (from 48 to a maximum of 32 tonnes), while the
maximum speed (monitored by the National Gendarmerie posts in Régina and
Iracoubo, which are also responsible for controlling the possible flow
of illegal traffic and irregular immigrants) is 90 km/h;
Departmental
roads (408 km), subdivided into urban and rural departmental roads
(rural roads), serving coastal villages, 90% of which do not have public
lighting;
Communal roads or forest tracks (1,311 km), most of which
are closed to ordinary traffic and reserved for authorised personnel
(employees of authorised mining or logging companies, forest rangers):
The longest tracks are the Bélizon track in the commune of Saül (Guiana)
(150 km), the Saint-Élie-diga track in Petit-Saut (26 km), the Coralie
track (the oldest in the department, created to reach the Boulanger
mine) and the Maripasoula-Papaïchton track. Communal roads are often
unpaved and often lead into the forest from the departmental roads;
Despite the existence of numerous projects to improve and asphalt
certain roads (such as the aforementioned Bélizon road or the
Apatou-Maripasoula-Saül axis), which are often opposed by environmental
movements because of the fragmentation of the environment and the
problems for the Amerindian and Maroon communities associated with them,
several French-Guianan municipalities (Ouanary, Camopi, Saül,
Saint-Élie, Grand-Santi, Papaïchton, Maripasoula, Apatou) remain without
road access.
Today, French Guiana has no railway system, except for a small section in the Centre Spatial Guyanais used for the transport of components: when the territory was a penal colony, there were a few sections of railway built by the prisoners themselves to connect the various toilets to each other, the remains of which (now in disuse and mostly swallowed up by the forest) are still visible in some areas. These lines include the section from Montsinéry-Tonnegrande to the so-called Bagne des Annamites, the section from Saint-Élie to the Saut du Tigre labour camp (now submerged by the artificial lake created by the Petit-Saut dam) and the section from Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni-Mana-Saint-Jean-du-Maroni.
Shipping is quite widespread in French Guiana: the most important
ports are the port of Dégrad-Des-Cannes, located at the mouth of the
Mahury River, in the commune of Rémire-Montjoly, through which most of
the goods imported or exported from the territory pass and where the
local detachment of the Marine nationale is housed, and the port of
Larivot, located in Matoury, where the Guyanese fishing fleet is
concentrated.
The port of Dégrad-Des-Cannes, built in 1969 to
cope with the inability of the old port of Cayenne to relieve the
growing maritime traffic, has a rather limited draft, and larger ships
often prefer to dock at Ile du Salut to unload people and goods (which
are then transported to the mainland by smaller ships) to avoid running
aground. The port of Pariacabo, in Kourou, is home to the ships Colibri
and Toucan, which carry components for Ariane missiles.
The
inland rivers are travelled intensively by canoes and other small boats,
linking the villages on the Marowijne, Oyapock and Approuague rivers,
which are often not accessible by any other means; the lake created by
the Petit-Saut dam is also frequently crossed, although crossing the
body of water is officially prohibited.
In the department, 460 km
of waterway are considered navigable.
French Guiana is served by Cayenne-Rochambeau Airport, located in
Matoury: there are also several airstrips in the department, located in
Camopi, Maripasoula, Ouanary, Saint-Georges-de-l'Oyapock,
Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni and Saül, for a total of eleven centres (four
paved and seven unpaved).
From the main airport there are two
daily direct flights to Paris (Paris Orly Airport, with an average
flight time of about 8 hours 25 minutes from Guyana to the capital and 9
hours 10 minutes in reverse), offered by Air France and Air Caraïbes, as
well as other flights to Fort-de-France, Pointe-à-Pitre, Port-au-Prince,
Miami and Belém: The regional company Air Guyane Express also offers
daily flights to Maripasoula and Saül, as well as more sporadic flights
(mainly related to postal deliveries) to Saint-Georges-de-l'Oyapock and
Camopi.
There is a public bus service which currently only covers the
municipality of Cayenne and which is managed by the SMTC (Syndicat Mixte
de Transport en Comune, now renamed Régie Communautaire des Transports -
RCT) and consists of seven lines.
For connections between coastal
towns (except Montsinéry-Tonnegrande), the "collective taxi" (Taxis Co)
method is quite widespread. These are minibuses with a capacity of about
ten people that leave as soon as a certain number of users are on board.
In 2010, the general council reached an agreement with some of the
operators of this service to make it at least partially public under the
name TIG (Guiana Interurban Transport), with fixed departure times and
predefined stops.
On the main rivers (Marowijne and Oyapoque),
there are canoe services (called pirogues taxis), which go both to
inland centres and across the border (such as Albina in Suriname or
Oiapoque in Brazil).