Chile
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Chile is a country in southern South America, bordering the South Pacific Ocean, between Argentina and Peru.
Its major environmental issues include widespread deforestation and mining threaten natural resources; air pollution from industrial and vehicle emissions; water pollution from raw sewage.
Prior to the coming of the Spanish in the 16th century, northern Chile was under Inca rule while the indigenous Mapuche inhabited central and southern Chile. Although Chile declared its independence in 1810, decisive victory over the Spanish was not achieved until 1818. In the War of the Pacific (1879-83), Chile defeated Peru and Bolivia and won its present northern regions. It was not until the 1880s that the Mapuche Indians were completely subjugated. After a series of elected governments, a three-year-old Marxist government of Salvador ALLENDE was overthrown in 1973 by a military coup led by Augusto PINOCHET, who ruled until a freely elected president was installed in 1990. Sound economic policies, maintained consistently since the 1980s, have contributed to steady growth, reduced poverty rates by over half, and have helped secure the country's commitment to democratic and representative government. Chile has increasingly assumed regional and international leadership roles befitting its status as a stable, democratic nation.
Geography
Geographic Coordinates: 30 00 S, 71 00 W
Area: 756,950 sq km (748,800 sq km of land, 8,150 sq km of water)
arable land: 2.62%
permanent crops: 0.43%
other: 96.95% (2005)
Coastline: 6,435 km
Maritime Claims: Territorial sea to 12 nautical miles, a contiguous zone to 24 nautical miles, an exclusive economic zone to 200 nautical miles, and the continental shelf to 200-350 nautical miles.
Natural Hazards: Severe earthquakes; active volcanism; tsunamis.
Terrain: Low coastal mountains; fertile central valley; rugged Andes in east. The highest point is Nevado Ojos del Salado (6,880 m).
Climate: Temperate; desert in north; Mediterranean in central region; cool and damp in south.
Capital: Santiago
Ecology and Biodiversity
The richest and most diverse region on Earth, the Tropical Andes stretches into northern Chile. A virtual continental island bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Andes Mountains on the east, and the Atacama Desert in the north, the Chilean Winter Rainfall-Valdivian Forests biodiversity hotspot harbors richly endemic flora and fauna. The hotspot covers 397,142 km2 of the central-northern part of the nation of Chile.
Chile is home to several diverse terrestrial ecoregions, and is bordered by the Humboldt Current large marine ecosystem:
- Atacama desert
- Magellanic subpolar forests
- Rapa Nui and Sala-y-Gomez subtropical broadleaf forests
- San Félix-San Ambrosio Islands temperate forests
- Southern Andean steppe
- Valdivian temperate forests
International Environmental Agreements
Chile is party to the Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, and Whaling.
People and Society
Population: 16,601,707 (July 2009 est.)
Age Structure:
0-14 years: 23.2% (male 1,966,017/female 1,877,963)
15-64 years: 67.8% (male 5,625,963/female 5,628,146)
65 years and over: 9.1% (male 627,746/female 875,872) (2009 est.)
Population Growth Rate: 0.881% (2009 est.)
Birthrate: 14.82 births/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Death Rate: 5.77 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Net Migration Rate: NA (2009 est.)
Life Expectancy at Birth: 77.34 years
Total Fertility Rate: 1.92 children born/woman (2009 est.)
Languages: Spanish (official), Mapudungun, German, English
Literacy: 95.7% (2002 census)
The Human Development Index for Chile is 0.859, which gives Chile a rank of 38th out of 177 countries with data. See: Chile's Human Development Index for 2004
Energy
Chile has limited domestic energy resources. As a result, the country must import the bulk of its energy needs. Chile's growing reliance on energy imports, particularly on [natural gas]], has not been without consequences. In April 2004, Argentina began restricting natural gas exports to Chile, with cuts reaching nearly 50 percent of contracted volumes on some days. Chile, in turn, began to reconsider its energy policy, which, prior to the import restrictions, had assumed an increased use of natural gas and power imports from Argentina. Most importantly, Chile has begun to pursue other sources of natural gas, such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) or piped gas from other countries.
See Energy profile of Chile for more information.
Conflict
International Disputes: Chile and Peru rebuff Bolivia's reinvigorated claim to restore the Atacama corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, but Chile has offered instead unrestricted but not sovereign maritime access through Chile to Bolivian gas and other commodities; Chile rejects Peru's unilateral legislation to change its latitudinal maritime boundary with Chile to an equidistance line with a southwestern axis favoring Peru, in October 2007, Peru took its maritime complaint with Chile to the ICJ; territorial claim in Antarctica (Chilean Antarctic Territory) partially overlaps Argentine and British claims; the joint boundary commission, established by Chile and Argentina in 2001, has yet to map and demarcate the delimited boundary in the inhospitable Andean Southern Ice Field (Campo de Hielo Sur)
Economy
Chile has a market-oriented economy characterized by a high level of foreign trade and a reputation for strong financial institutions and sound policy that have given it the strongest sovereign bond rating in South America. Exports account for 40% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with commodities making up some three-quarters of total exports. Copper alone provides one-third of government revenue. During the early 1990s, Chile's reputation as a role model for economic reform was strengthened when the democratic government of Patricio AYLWIN - which took over from the military in 1990 - deepened the economic reform initiated by the military government. Growth in real GDP averaged 8% during 1991-97, but fell to half that level in 1998 because of tight monetary policies implemented to keep the current account deficit in check and because of lower export earnings - the latter a product of the global financial crisis. A severe drought exacerbated the situation in 1999, reducing crop yields and causing hydroelectric shortfalls and electricity rationing, and Chile experienced negative economic growth for the first time in more than 15 years. In the years since then, growth has averaged 4% per year. Chile deepened its longstanding commitment to trade liberalization with the signing of a free trade agreement with the US, which took effect on 1 January 2004. Chile claims to have more bilateral or regional trade agreements than any other country. It has 57 such agreements (not all of them full free trade agreements), including with the European Union, Mercosur, China, India, South Korea, and Mexico. Over the past five years, foreign direct investment inflows have quadrupled to some $17 billion in 2008. The Chilean government conducts a rule-based countercyclical fiscal policy, accumulating surpluses in sovereign wealth funds during periods of high copper prices and economic growth, and allowing deficit spending only during periods of low copper prices and growth. As of September 2008, those sovereign wealth funds - kept mostly outside the country and separate from Central Bank reserves - amounted to more than $20 billion.
GDP: (Purchasing Power Parity): $245.3 billion (2008 est.)
GDP-real growth rate: 4% (2008 est.)
GDP- per capita (PPP): $14,900 (2008 est.)
GDP- composition by sector:
agriculture: 4.8%
industry: 50.5%
services: 44.7% (2008 est.)
Industries: copper, other minerals, foodstuffs, fish processing, iron and steel, wood and wood products, transport equipment, cement, textiles
Natural Resources: copper, timber, iron ore, nitrates, precious metals, molybdenum, hydropower
Currency: Chilean Peso
Further Reading
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