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 Sap Great Lake. From July to the end of October, when the level of the Mekong is high, water flows via the Tonle Sap River, increasing the size of the lake from 2,600 km2 to about at its maximum extent. The storage capacity of Tonle Sap Great Lake is about . When the level of the Mekong decreases, the Tonle Sap River reverses its flow and water flows back from the Tonle Sap Lake into the Mekong River. The Mekong flows from north to south, over a distance of around 480 km. About 86% of Cambodia’s territory () is included in the Mekong’s basin with the remaining 14% draining directly towards the Gulf of Thailand. Cambodia represents 20% of the total catchment area of the Mekong basin. Total internal renewable water resources have been estimated at over . Hydroelectric power Cambodia's hydroelectric generating potential is considerable, especially from the swift current of the middle Mekong River where it flows through the Stoeng Treng and Kracheh provinces. Other sites of minor importance are on rivers in the highlands of the northeastern and north-central parts of the country. Although the Tonle Sap is Cambodia's dominant hydraulic feature, the rivers flowing into this great lake have little or no exploitable potential. In general, development of Cambodia's water potential appears to be more important for the expansion of irrigation than for the production of electricity. The largest hydroelectric dam in Cambodia is Lower Se San 2 Dam which began operation in November 2017 and scheduled for full operation by October 2018. Stung Treng Dam is a proposed hydroelectric dam with an average production of 4,870 GWh per year, almost 2.5 times the average production of Lower Se San 2. Forests The forests of Cambodia include evergreen, semi-evergreen, deciduous, swamp, mangrove and bamboo forest in