Suriname Geography - 2004

Location:
Northern South America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between French Guiana and Guyana

Geographic coordinates:
4 00 N, 56 00 W

Map references:
South America

Area:
total: 163,270 sq km
land: 161,470 sq km
water: 1,800 sq km

Area - comparative:
slightly larger than Georgia

Land boundaries:
total: 1,707 km
border countries: Brazil 597 km, French Guiana 510 km, Guyana 600 km

Coastline:
386 km

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

Climate:
tropical; moderated by trade winds

Terrain:
mostly rolling hills; narrow coastal plain with swamps

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: unnamed location in the coastal plain -2 m
highest point: Juliana Top 1,230 m

Natural resources:
timber, hydropower, fish, kaolin, shrimp, bauxite, gold, and small amounts of nickel, copper, platinum, iron ore

Land use:
arable land: 0.37%
permanent crops: 0.06%
note: there are 95,000 hectares of arable land, 7,000 hectares of permanent crops, and 15,000 hectares of permanent pastures (1998 est.)
other: 99.57%

Irrigated land:
490 sq km (1998 est.)

Natural hazards:
NA

Environment - current issues:
deforestation as timber is cut for export; pollution of inland waterways by small-scale mining activities

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