Natural resources: copper, mahogany forests, shrimp, hydropower
Land use: arable land: 7% permanent crops: 2% other: 91% (1998 est.)
Irrigated land: 320 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards: occasional severe storms and forest fires in the
Darien area
Environment - current issues: water pollution from agricultural runoff threatens fishery resources; deforestation of tropical rain forest; land degradation and soil erosion threatens siltation of Panama Canal; air pollution in urban areas; mining threatens natural resources
Environment - international agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate
Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered
Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear
Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83,
Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling signed, but not ratified: Marine
Life Conservation
Geography - note: strategic location on eastern end of isthmus forming land bridge connecting North and South America; controls Panama Canal that links North Atlantic Ocean via Caribbean Sea with North Pacific Ocean
People Panama
Population: 2,882,329 (July 2002 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 29.6% (male 433,494; female 418,120) 15-64 years: 64.3% (male 939,550; female 914,646) 65 years and over: 6.1% (male 84,130; female 92,389) (2002 est.)