Friday, October 15, 2010

Geography and Natural Resources of The Congo

StephanieHarris and Maya Sirmons
Located in Central Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo has a estimated population of 60,085,804. It is slightly less than 1/4 the size of the United States, with their land totalling to 2,345,410 sq km, 77,810 sq km being water. The Congo is three times the size on Pennsylvania and it surrounded by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, and the Angola exclave of Cabinda, with a short stretch of coast on the South Atlantic. Of that vast amount of land only 2.96% is arable meaning the other 96.25 % is not farmable. In result, issues such as wildlife population, water pollution, deforestation, soil erosion, and wildlife poaching. Along with the small amount of land that is arable, there are periodic droughts which are natural hazards to the crops and which becomes a huge problem for the people of Congo. The Democratic of Congo is also landlocked, which means that they are shut in by land completely and they have no direct access to the sea or water for that matter.
Aside from the environmental issues in the Congo they possess a limited number of natural resources which include gold, cassiterite (tin ore), wolframite (tungsten ore), methane, hydropower, and arable land. As of today the Congo continues to develop their natural resources while also attempting to discover new ways to improve their environment.

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