Natural resources of Cambodia
Natural resources are materials that occur in a natural form within environments. These can be classified as either biotic or abiotic on the basis of their origin. The landmass and the territorial waters of Cambodia contain a rather moderate amount, array and variety of resources. Apart from water, abiotic resources, such as minerals are generally rare. Still, advanced geo-scientific technologies have produced remarkable results and re-assessments in recent years, such as the localization of offshore oil and gas depots in the Gulf of Thailand. Cambodia, on the other hand possesses a relatively wide range of biotic resources, in particular timber, forest products, rare plants and a fauna of great diversity. Overview Cambodia comprises an undulating plateau in its eastern part, a continuous flat plain (the Lake Tonle Sap lowland) interrupted only by isolated hills (Phnoms) and the Mekong River in the central part of the country, highlands to the north and northeast and the Cardamom Mountains in the south-west. The agricultural area was estimated at in 2009, with estimated cultivated areas totaling . 96% of this area was used for annual crops and 3.8% for permanent crops. Water The Cambodian hydro-logical system is dominated by the Mekong River and Tonle