French Guiana is located in Northern South America, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Brazil and Suriname.
French Guiana has borders with Brazil for 673km and Suriname for 510km.
Land in French Guiana is low-lying coastal plains rising to hills and small mountains.
French Guianese land covers an area of 91000 square kilometers which is slightly smaller than Indiana
As for the French Guianese climate; tropical; hot, humid; little seasonal temperature variation.
French Guianese (singular and plural) speak French.
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Cayenne Matoury Saint-Laurent du Maroni Kourou Montjoly Macouria Mana Apatou | Grand-Santi Sinnamary Saint-Georges Roura Iracoubo Camopi |
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French Guiana (general) |
First settled by the French in 1604, French Guiana was the site of notorious penal settlements until 1951. The European Space Agency launches its communication satellites from Kourou.
The economy is tied closely to the much larger French economy through subsidies and imports. Besides the French space center at Kourou (which accounts for 25% of GDP), fishing and forestry are the most important economic activities. Forest and woodland cover 90% of the country. The large reserves of tropical hardwoods, not fully exploited, support an expanding sawmill industry that provides sawn logs for export. Cultivation of crops is limited to the coastal area, where the population is largely concentrated; rice and manioc are the major crops. French Guiana is heavily dependent on imports of food and energy. Unemployment is a serious problem, particularly among younger workers.
French Guianese natural resources include bauxite, timber, gold (widely scattered), petroleum, kaolin, fish, niobium, tantalum, clay
mostly an unsettled wilderness; the only non-independent portion of the South American continent
French Guianese religion is Roman Catholic.
Natural hazards in French Guiana include high frequency of heavy showers and severe thunderstorms; flooding.