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Kyrgyzstan is a landlocked nation in Central Asia, with an area of . The national territory extends about from east to west and from north to south.

Kyrgyzstan is bordered on the east and southeast by China, on the north by Kazakhstan, on the west by Uzbekistan, and on the south by Tajikistan. The borders with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the Fergana Valley are rather complicated. One consequence of the Stalinist division of Central Asia into five republics is that many ethnic Kyrgyz people do not live in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan's 6,500 distinct glaciers are estimated to hold about of water

|source 2 = NOAA (sun, 1961–1990)

|date=August 2010

Climate change

Environmental issues

Kyrgyzstan has been spared many of the enormous environmental problems faced by its Central Asian neighbors, primarily because its designated roles in the Soviet system involved neither heavy industry nor large-scale cotton production.

thumb|Alamedin River does not carry a lot of water in September

Although Kyrgyzstan has abundant water running through it, its water supply is determined by a post-Soviet sharing agreement among the five Central Asian republics. In 1994 agriculture accounted for about 88% of total water consumption, compared with 8% by industry and 4% by municipal water distribution systems.

  • Eight state nature reserves (zapovedniks), with a total area of
  • Nine state nature national parks ();
  • Ten forest, twenty-three floral, eighteen geological, and two general-purpose protected areas (zakazniks), as well as fourteen game reserves, with the total area of
  • Lake Issyk Kul (so designated since 1998) and Sary-Chelek biosphere reserve (since 1978), together occupying the area of .

Area and boundaries

thumb|[[Tamchy Bay on Lake Issyk Kul]]

;Area:

:*total:

:**country rank in the world: 85th

:*land:

:*water:

;Area — comparative:

:* Australia comparative: slightly less than three times the size of Tasmania

:* Canada comparative: slightly less than half the size of Newfoundland and Labrador

:* United Kingdom comparative: approximately 1 times the size of England

:* United States comparative: approximately the size of South Dakota

:* EU comparative: slightly less than the size of Italy

;Land boundaries:

:*total:

:*border countries:

:**the People's Republic of China

:**Kazakhstan

:**Tajikistan

:**Uzbekistan

;Coastline: 0&nbsp;km (landlocked)

;Elevation extremes:

:*lowest point: Kara-Darya

:*highest point: Peak Jengish Chokusu

Resources and land use

thumb|Wetlands along the shore of Lake [[Issyk Kul near Tamchy]]

Terrain: peaks of Tian Shan and associated valleys and basins encompass entire nation

Natural resources: abundant hydropower; significant deposits of gold and rare earth metals; locally exploitable coal, petroleum, and natural gas; other deposits of nepheline, mercury, bismuth, lead, and zinc.

Land use:

<br />arable land: 6.7%

<br />permanent crops: 0.4%

<br />permanent pasture: 48.3%

<br />forest: 5.1%

<br />other: 93.24% (2011)

<br />note:

Kyrgyzstan has the world's largest natural growth walnut forest, Arslanbob, located in Jalal-Abad Region with an enormous variety of different genetic characteristics. It is believed that most of the world's walnut varieties derive from the original species still found here.

Irrigated land: (2005)

Total renewable water resources: (2011)

References