Environment - current issues: population pressure forcing settlement in marginal areas results in overgrazing, severe soil erosion, and soil exhaustion; desertification; Highlands Water Project controls, stores, and redirects water to South Africa
Environment - international agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate
Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes,
Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection signed, but not ratified:
Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping
Geography - note: landlocked, completely surrounded by South Africa; mountainous, more than 80% of the country is 1,800 meters above sea level
People Lesotho
Population: 2,207,954 note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2002 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 39% (male 433,229; female 427,926) 15-64 years: 56.3% (male 600,476; female 642,538) 65 years and over: 4.7% (male 43,691; female 60,094) (2002 est.)
Population growth rate: 1.33% (2002 est.)
Birth rate: 30.72 births/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Death rate: 16.81 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Net migration rate: -0.63 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002 est.)