The Territory is the centre of the Indian Ocean, thesouthernmost point of the Laccadive-Maldive-Chagos ridge, between5-7 degrees south, lies about 1,770km east of Mahe, the main islandof the Seychelles.

Size

An archipelago of five atolls containing 55 islands covers some54,400 sq km of ocean. The islands have a land area of only 46 sqkm and 698km of coastline. Diego Garcia, the largest and mostsoutherly island, is 27 sq km.

Climate

The climate is tropical oceanic type and moderated by tradewinds.

Topography 

The terrain is flat and low and most areas do not exceed twometres in elevation.

Biodiversity

With a huge network of coral reefs the Territory supports 1.5%of the total global area of reefs (JNCC, 1999). The islands alsoprovide nesting sites for the green and hawksbill turtles, and verylarge numbers of seabirds.

Main economic activities 

There is no civilian air service. There are no economic,industrial or agricultural activities on the islands. UK and USmilitary personnel and civilian contract employees, mostlyrecruited from Mauritius and the Philippines, carry outconstruction projects and other services in support of the USdefence facility in Diego Garcia These numbered approximately 4,000persons (2004 estimate).

Other information 

The isolation of the BIOT and the low level of human impact,make it ideal for the study of tropical marine ecology, undistortedby pollution.

Information links

JNCC has prepared a series of outreach materials whichgive a general background to climate change and includes territoryspecific information on climatechange impacts.