Maritime claims: contiguous zone: 25-nm security zone continental shelf: natural prolongation territorial sea: 200 nm
International disputes: territorial disputes with Colombia over the Archipelago de San Andres y Providencia and Quita Sueno Bank; with respect to the maritime boundary question in the Golfo de Fonseca, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) referred the disputants to an earlier agreement in this century and advised that some tripartite resolution among El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua likely would be required
Climate: tropical in lowlands, cooler in highlands
Terrain: extensive Atlantic coastal plains rising to central interior
mountains; narrow Pacific coastal plain interrupted by volcanoes
Natural resources: gold, silver, copper, tungsten, lead, zinc, timber,
fish
Land use: arable land: 9% permanent crops: 1% meadows and pastures: 43% forest and woodland: 35% other: 12%
Irrigated land: 850 sq km (1989 est.)
Environment:
current issues: deforestation; soil erosion; water pollution
natural hazards: destructive earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, and
occasionally severe hurricanes
international agreements: party to - Endangered Species, Nuclear Test
Ban, Ozone Layer Protection; signed, but not ratified - Biodiversity,
Climate Change, Environmental Modification, Law of the Sea
@Nicaragua:People
Population: 4,206,353 (July 1995 est.)