Papua New Guinea

Location	Oceania, group of islands including the eastern half of the island of New Guinea between the Coral Sea and the South Pacific Ocean, east of Indonesia
Geographic coordinates	6 00 S, 147 00 E
Map references	Oceania
Area	total: 462,840 sq km land: 452,860 sq km water: 9,980 sq km
Area - comparative	slightly larger than California
Land boundaries	total: 820 km border countries: Indonesia 820 km
Coastline	5,152 km
Maritime claims	measured from claimed archipelagic baselines territorial sea: 12 nm continental shelf: 200 m depth or to the depth of exploitation exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm
Climate	tropical; northwest monsoon (December to March), southeast monsoon (May to October); slight seasonal temperature variation
Terrain	mostly mountains with coastal lowlands and rolling foothills
Elevation extremes	lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m highest point: Mount Wilhelm 4,509 m
Natural resources	gold, copper, silver, natural gas, timber, oil, fisheries
Land use	arable land: 0.49% permanent crops: 1.4% other: 98.11% (2005)
Irrigated land	NA
Total renewable water resources	801 cu km (1987)
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural)	total: 0.1 cu km/yr (56%/43%/1%) per capita: 17 cu m/yr (1987)
Natural hazards	active volcanism; situated along the Pacific "Ring of Fire"; the country is subject to frequent and sometimes severe earthquakes; mud slides; tsunamis volcanism: severe volcanic activity; Ulawun (elev. 2,334 m), one of Papua New Guinea's potentially most dangerous volcanoes, has been deemed a "Decade Volcano" by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior, worthy of study due to its explosive history and close proximity to human populations; Rabaul (elev. 688 m) destroyed the city of Rabaul in 1937 and 1994; Lamington erupted in 1951 killing 3,000 people; Manam's 2004 eruption forced the island's abandonment; other historically active volcanoes include Bam, Bagana, Garbuna, Karkar, Langila, Lolobau, Long Island, Pago, St. Andrew Strait, Victory, and Waiowa
Environment - current issues	rain forest subject to deforestation as a result of growing commercial demand for tropical timber; pollution from mining projects; severe drought
Environment - international agreements	party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, 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
Geography - note	shares island of New Guinea with Indonesia; one of world's largest swamps along southwest coast