French Polynesia:
Geography


Background	The French annexed various Polynesian island groups during the 19th century. In September 1995, France stirred up widespread protests by resuming nuclear testing on the Mururoa atoll after a three-year moratorium. The tests were suspended in January 1996. In recent years, French Polynesia's autonomy has been considerably expanded.

Location	Oceania, archipelagoes in the South Pacific Ocean about one-half of the way from South America to Australia
Geographic coordinates	15 00 S, 140 00 W
Map references	Oceania
Area	total: 4,167 sq km (118 islands and atolls) land: 3,660 sq km water: 507 sq km
Area - comparative	slightly less than one-third the size of Connecticut
Land boundaries	0 km
Coastline	2,525 km
Maritime claims	territorial sea: 12 nm exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
Climate	tropical, but moderate
Terrain	mixture of rugged high islands and low islands with reefs
Elevation extremes	lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m highest point: Mont Orohena 2,241 m
Natural resources	timber, fish, cobalt, hydropower
Land use	arable land: 0.75% permanent crops: 5.5% other: 93.75% (2005)
Irrigated land	10 sq km (2003)
Natural hazards	occasional cyclonic storms in January
Environment - current issues	NA
Geography - note	includes five archipelagoes (4 volcanic, 1 coral); Makatea in French Polynesia is one of the three great phosphate rock islands in the Pacific Ocean - the others are Banaba (Ocean Island) in Kiribati and Nauru