| Geography and Climate |
Belarus is a landlocked country, located in Eastern Europe, east of Poland. Area comparatively, slightly smaller than Kansas. Total land boundary is 3,098 km, border countries are Latvia 141 km, Lithuania 502 km, Poland 605 km, Russia 959 km, Ukraine 891 km.
Belarus has climate of cold winters, cool and moist summers; transitional between continental and maritime. Terrain consists generally flat and contains much marshland. The elevation extreme has lowest point in Nyoman River 90 m and highest point in Dzyarzhynskaya Hara 346 m. Natural resources are forests, peat deposits, small quantities of oil and natural gas. Land use: arable land: 29%, permanent crops: 1%, permanent pastures: 15%, forests and woodland: 34%, other: 21% (1993 est.).
Environment—current issues: soil pollution from pesticide use; southern part of the country contaminated with fallout from 1986 nuclear reactor accident at Chornobyl' in northern Ukraine.
Geography—note: landlocked
Ref. Anonymous, 1999 |