| Geography and Climate |
French Polynesia is located in Oceania, archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, about one-half of the way from South America to Australia.
French Polynesia has a tropical climate, but moderate. Terrain consists of mixture of rugged high islands and low islands with reefs. Elevation extreme has the lowest point in Pacific Ocean 0 m and highest point in Mount Orohena 2,241 m. Natural resources are timber, fish, cobalt.
Land use: arable land: 1%, permanent crops: 6%, permanent pastures: 5%, forests and woodland: 31%, other: 57% (1993 est.). Natural hazards are occasional cyclonic storms in January.
Geography—note: includes five archipelagoes; Makatea in French Polynesia is one of the three great phosphate rock islands in the Pacific Ocean—the others are Banaba (Ocean Island) in Kiribati and Nauru.
Ref. Anonymous, 1999 |