French Guiana, Ecological Movements Against the Guiana Space Center in Kourou

Abstract

Guiana became a French overseas department in March of 1946. Ninety percent of its land is made up of forest and represents a treasure of biodiversity. It is also rich in gold. Because of its favorable geographic conditions, such as its proximity to the Equator and the Atlantic Ocean, as well as its climatic benefits and its low demographic index (a total population of 45,000 in 1964), it was chosen in 1965 as the site for a French space base, the Guiana Space Center, in the small town of Kourou.