Belarus Environment - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Environment - current issues

soil pollution from pesticide use; southern part of the country contaminated with fallout from 1986 nuclear reactor accident at Chornobyl' in northern Ukraine

Environment - international agreements

party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Antarctic-Environmental Protection, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping-London Convention, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 18.06 micrograms per cubic meter (2016 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 58.28 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 17.19 megatons (2020 est.)

Climate

cold winters, cool and moist summers; transitional between continental and maritime

Land use

agricultural land: 43.7% (2018 est.)

arable land: 27.2% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 0.6% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 15.9% (2018 est.)

forest: 42.7% (2018 est.)

other: 13.6% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 80.7% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 0.28% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

total population growth rate v. urban population growth rate, 2000-2030

Revenue from forest resources

forest revenues: 1.02% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

coal revenues: 0% of GDP (2018 est.)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 4.28 million tons (2015 est.)

municipal solid waste recycled annually: 684,800 tons (2016 est.)

percent of municipal solid waste recycled: 16% (2016 est.)

Major rivers (by length in km)

Dnieper (shared with Russia [s] and Ukraine [m]) - 2,287 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth

Major watersheds (area sq km)

Atlantic Ocean drainage: (Black Sea) Dnieper (533,966 sq km)

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 523 million cubic meters (2017 est.)

industrial: 443 million cubic meters (2017 est.)

agricultural: 431 million cubic meters (2017 est.)

Total renewable water resources

57.9 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding Belarus on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Belarus 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Belarus 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.