The Gambia is the very narrow country, smallest of Africa, which extends on both sides from the river Gambia. Its maximum width does not exceed 48 km. A treaty between the France and the the United Kingdom defined the current borders in 1889. Put aside the coast giving on the Atlantic Ocean, Gambia is wedged in the Senegal.

Raw data

Climate: tropical, hot and wet summer (from June to November), dry winter and more expenses (from November to May).

Relief: flat marshy, some hills.

Natural resources: fish

Exploitation of the ground:

• cultivable Grounds: 18  %
• Permanent crops: 0  %
• permanent Pastures: 9  %
• Forests: 28  %
• Others: 45  %

irrigated Grounds: 150 km

maritime Claims:

• Territorial water: 12 miles nautical
• contiguous Zone: 18 miles nautical
• continental Shelf: n.c
• exclusive economic Zone: 200 miles nautical

Natural disasters: reduction in precipitations of 30  % during the 30 last years.

environmental Problems: deforestation, turning into a desert.

International conventions on the environment:

• Left with: biodiversity, climate changes, turning into a desert, species in the process of disappearance, dispersion of harmful products, right of the sea, prohibition of the nuclear tests, protection of the layer of ozone, maritime pollution, wetlands.

See too