Indonesia

Asia

Capital: JakartaApril to October

339

Documented species

Parks and reserves

Dive sites

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Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world, with more than seventeen thousand islands spread across five thousand kilometres, and one of the two or three most biodiverse countries on the planet. Its territory is split by the Wallace Line, an invisible biogeographical frontier separating fauna of Asian origin, to the west, from that of Australian origin, to the east, which explains why neighbouring islands hold tigers and orangutans on one side and tree kangaroos and birds of paradise on the other. The country is part of the Coral Triangle, the richest marine region on the planet, and more coral species have been counted in Raja Ampat than anywhere else. Its active volcanoes, more than one hundred and thirty of them, constantly renew soils and landscapes.

The nature of Indonesia

National animal: The Komodo dragon, the national animal; the garuda, a mythical bird, is the emblem of the state

Did you know?

The Tapanuli orangutan was described in 2017, the first new great ape species identified in almost a century. It lives in a single block of forest in northern Sumatra, numbers fewer than eight hundred individuals and is therefore the rarest great ape in the world. It differs from its relatives in its coat, the shape of its skull and, above all, the long high-pitched call given by the males.

Biodiversity profile

Sudeste Asiatico (mayor archipielago del mundo)Aprox. 3% de cobertura marina protegida (dato regional ASEAN); dato de cobertura terrestre total no confirmado con precision uniforme entre fuentes consultadas

Climate

•Ecuatorial humedo (Af) en la mayor parte del pais
•Tropical con estacion seca (Aw/Am) en zonas orientales (Nusa Tenggara)

Main biomes

•Selva tropical humeda (Sumatra, Kalimantan/Borneo, Papua)
•Bosque de transicion de Wallacea (Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, biogeografia unica entre Asia y Oceania)
•Manglares (mayor extension del mundo junto con Brasil)
•Arrecifes de coral del Triangulo de Coral
•Arrecife del Triángulo de Coral
•Volcán activo
•Turbera tropical
•Manglar costero
•Sabana de las islas menores
•Bosque de montaña de Papúa

Marine and coastal ecosystems

•Nucleo del Triangulo de Coral (mayor diversidad marina del planeta)
•Extensos manglares costeros en Sumatra y Kalimantan

Flagship wildlife

•Orangutan de Sumatra y de Borneo
•Dragon de Komodo
•Tigre de Sumatra
•Rinoceronte de Java (uno de los mamiferos mas amenazados del mundo)
•Elefante pigmeo de Borneo
•Orangután de Tapanuli
•Orangután de Sumatra
•Elefante de Sumatra
•Ave del paraíso
•Babirusa
•Anoa
•Tarsero espectral

Notable endemic species

•Segundo pais mas biodiverso del mundo, con 2 de los 25 hotspots mundiales de biodiversidad y 24 Areas de Endemismo de Aves de BirdLife International
•Dragon de Komodo (endemico de un puñado de islas)
•Orangutan de Sumatra y de Borneo (especies distintas, ambas endemicas de sus respectivas islas)
•Orangután de Tapanuli
•Rinoceronte de Java
•Babirusa
•Ave del paraíso de Wilson

Notable threatened species

•Rinoceronte de Java (En Peligro Critico, menos de 80 individuos, restringido al Parque Nacional Ujung Kulon)
•Orangutan de Sumatra y de Borneo (En Peligro Critico)
•Tigre de Sumatra (En Peligro Critico)

Notable protected areas

•Parque Nacional Komodo (Patrimonio Mundial)
•Parque Nacional Ujung Kulon (rinoceronte de Java)
•Ecosistema de Leuser (Sumatra, unico lugar del mundo con orangutanes, tigres, rinocerontes y elefantes conviviendo)
•Parque Nacional de Komodo
•Parque Nacional de Gunung Leuser
•Raja Ampat
•Parque Nacional de Ujung Kulon
•Parque Nacional de Lorentz
•Parque Nacional de Tanjung Puting

Main conservation threats

•Deforestacion por expansion de plantaciones de palma aceitera
•Fragmentacion de habitat de grandes mamiferos (orangutan, tigre, rinoceronte, elefante)
•Sobrepesca y degradacion de arrecifes de coral en el Triangulo de Coral
•Alta presion de pesca en zonas prioritarias de conservacion segun estudios de biodiversidad marina

Notable natural phenomena

•Wallacea, zona de transicion biogeografica unica entre las faunas asiatica y australiana, con altisimo endemismo insular

Conservation

The Javan rhinoceros survives only in Ujung Kulon, with a few dozen animals in a single park, which leaves it extremely vulnerable to an eruption or an epidemic. Peatland fires cleared for palm plantations are the country's largest cause of habitat destruction.

Where and when to watch wildlife

Komodo between April and June for the dragons. Raja Ampat between October and April for reefs and mantas. Tanjung Puting and Leuser year-round for orangutans.

Sources: Interactive Country Fiches (UNEP-GRID) - Biodiversity Indonesia | mundukmodingplantation.com - Exploring Biodiversity in Indonesia | PMC - Biodiversity Marine Mollusks Indo-Pacific Convergence Zone | Wikipedia - Mentawai Islands rain forests

Rainforest Ocean

Natural phenomena in Indonesia

Temporada de apareamiento del dragón de Komodo — Mayo a agosto

Parks and reserves

National Park

Bukit Barisan Selatan

One of the three parks that make up the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra, on the List in Danger since 2011.

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Gunung Leuser

One of the last places on the planet where the Sumatran orangutan, tiger, rhino and elephant still live side by side

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Kerinci Seblat

The largest national park in Sumatra; it holds Indonesia's highest active volcano

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Komodo

The archipelago that gives its name to, and is the only home of, the largest living lizard on the planet.

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Lorentz

The largest national park in South-East Asia; the only place on the planet with permanent equatorial snow beside rainforest

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Ujung Kulon

The last refuge of the Javan rhinoceros, with fewer than 80 animals left on the planet, all of them in this one park

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Alas Purwo

Java's "first forest", where legend says the land rose from the ocean, with mangroves, savannah and the G-Land wave.

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Baluran

Java's "Africa": open savannah at the foot of a volcano, an oddity on an island of tropical forest.

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Bunaken

Vertical coral walls off Manado, one of Indonesia's first marine parks.

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Gunung Rinjani

Indonesia's second-highest volcano, with a caldera lake and an active cone inside it.

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Diving and snorkelling

Reef/Pelagic

Komodo National Park

The park combines two very different regimes: the north, warm and with high visibility, and the south, colder through upwelling and with an explosion of soft coral. The landmark sites are Castle Rock and Crystal Rock (pinnacles with pelagic action), Batu Bolong (iconic biodiversity), Manta Alley and Karang Makassar (manta cleaning), The Cauldron — also called Shotgun — for drift diving, Cannibal Rock in Horseshoe Bay south of Rinca, and Pillarsteen, a vertical limestone cliff on the south-west of Komodo riddled with swim-throughs and caverns.

View dive site Coastal pelagic

Cenderawasih Bay (whale shark)

The only place in the world with a resident whale shark population all year round. The animals come to the bagan, floating fishing platforms, to feed on the small fish trapped in the nets suspended beneath. The encounter happens in a few metres of crystal-clear water, with the sharks circling the platform quite unbothered by the bubbles.

View dive site Pinnacle/Cleaning station

Blue Magic (Raja Ampat)

A seamount rising from deep water to form a shallow reef top — the crest sits at around 10 m — before falling away in a steep slope towards the blue. It is a compact but extremely dense reef: the nutrient-laden currents make it a gathering point, and along its edges are cleaning stations to which the manta rays return regularly.

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Bunaken Marine Park

Wall diving in its purest form: vertical drops that begin at 2 m and disappear beyond 40, with dense hard coral cover. The typical plan is a multilevel dive spending the whole tank on a single stretch of wall. The park takes in five islands: Bunaken, Manado Tua, Mantehage, Nain and Siladen.

View dive site Sloping reef

Cape Kri

A submerged ridge running out from the eastern tip of Kri island, right in the middle of the Dampier Strait. It is the best-known site in Raja Ampat and holds one of the greatest densities of large fish in the north of the archipelago. Working depth is usually around 15 m along the wall and about 8 m on the spine of the ridge.

View dive site Bommie reef

Kri Island (Raja Ampat)

A living reef beginning some 6 m below the surface, with large table coral formations under which the wobbegongs rest and huge sea fans in which to look for pygmy seahorses. Sorido Wall, on the same island, is reckoned one of the best soft coral walls in the area.

View dive site Cleaning station

Manta Ridge (Arborek)

A manta ray cleaning station on the ridge off Arborek. Together with Manta Sandy — shallower, between 5 and 8 m, and workable even on a breath-hold — it forms the most reliable pairing for manta encounters in the Coral Triangle. At Manta Sandy the protocol is to sit still on a patch of sand while the mantas let themselves be cleaned overhead; the encounters last between 15 and 30 minutes.

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Menjangan Island (Bali Barat)

Part of West Bali National Park, with pristine coral walls and some of the best visibility in Bali.

View dive site Pinnacle / Soft coral reef

Misool (Boo Windows y Magic Mountain)

Misool is the least visited of Raja Ampat's four main islands and holds some of the richest reefs in the Coral Triangle. Boo Windows takes its name from two openings in the rock that pierce the pinnacle and frame the blue. Magic Mountain is a seamount with a plateau at around 15 m that works as a manta cleaning station and is spectacular even when they fail to show. The Fiabacet area completes the classic trio.

View dive site Reef/Wall

Raja Ampat

The epicentre of the Coral Triangle and the greatest marine biodiversity known on the planet: around 75 % of all described coral species and more than 1,500 species of fish. The Bird's Head Seascape that contains it covers more than 4.5 million hectares of reef, mangrove and island. Water temperature runs at 27-30 °C, with occasional thermoclines of 22 °C at the deep sites in the south.

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