<item><hi format=bold>International disputes:</hi> demarcation of international boundaries in Lake Chad, the lack of which has led to border incidents in the past, is completed and awaiting ratification by Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria; boundary commission, created with Cameroon to discuss unresolved land and maritime boundaries, has not yet convened, but a commission was formed January 1994 to study a flare-up of the dispute
<item><hi format=bold>Climate:</hi> varies; equatorial in south, tropical in center, arid in north
<item><hi format=bold>Terrain:</hi> southern lowlands merge into central hills and plateaus; mountains in southeast, plains in north
<item><hi format=bold>Natural resources:</hi> petroleum, tin, columbite, iron ore, coal, limestone, lead, zinc, natural gas
<item><hi format=bold>Land use:</hi>
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<item>• <hi format=ital>arable land:</hi> 31%
<item>• <hi format=ital>permanent crops:</hi> 3%
<item>• <hi format=ital>meadows and pastures:</hi> 23%
<item>• <hi format=ital>forest and woodland:</hi> 15%
<item>• <hi format=ital>other:</hi> 28%
</list>
<item><hi format=bold>Irrigated land:</hi> 8,650 sq km (1989 est.)
<item><hi format=bold>Environment:</hi>
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<item>• <hi format=ital>current issues:</hi> soil degradation; rapid deforestation; desertification; recent droughts in north severely affecting marginal agricultural activities
<item>• <hi format=ital>international agreements:</hi> party to—Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection; signed, but not ratified—Biodiversity, Climate Change