Cote d'Ivoire Geography - 2004

Location:
Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Ghana and Liberia

Geographic coordinates:
8 00 N, 5 00 W

Map references:
Africa

Area:
total: 322,460 sq km
water: 4,460 sq km
land: 318,000 sq km

Area - comparative:
slightly larger than New Mexico

Land boundaries:
total: 3,110 km
border countries: Burkina Faso 584 km, Ghana 668 km, Guinea 610 km, Liberia 716 km, Mali 532 km

Coastline:
515 km

Maritime claims - as described in UNCLOS 1982 (see Notes and Definitions):
territorial sea: 12 NM
exclusive economic zone: 200 NM
continental shelf: 200 NM

Climate:
tropical along coast, semiarid in far north; three seasons - warm and dry (November to March), hot and dry (March to May), hot and wet (June to October)

Terrain:
mostly flat to undulating plains; mountains in northwest

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Gulf of Guinea 0 m
highest point: Mont Nimba 1,752 m

Natural resources:
petroleum, natural gas, diamonds, manganese, iron ore, cobalt, bauxite, copper, hydropower

Land use:
arable land: 9.28%
permanent crops: 13.84%
other: 76.88% (1998 est.)

Irrigated land:
730 sq km (1998 est.)

Natural hazards:
coast has heavy surf and no natural harbors; during the rainy season torrential flooding is possible

Environment - current issues:
deforestation (most of the country's forests - once the largest in West Africa - have been heavily logged); water pollution from sewage and industrial and agricultural effluents

Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements