Indonesia
Indonesia
| Topics: |  Geography |
Indonesia is a nation in southeast Asia composed of 17,508 islands (of which 6,000 are inhabited) which straddle the equator between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. The largest islands are Sumatra, Java, Borneo (called Kalimantan in Indonesia, which has sovereignty over about two-thirds of the island), Sulawesi, and New Guinea (eastern half). Other notable islands include Timor (eastern half), the Maluku Islands, and the Lesser Sunda Islands which include Bali. With 240 million people, Indonesia is the 4th most populous nation in the world (after China, India, and the United States).
Its major environmental issues include: deforestation; water pollution from industrial wastes, sewage; air pollution in urban areas; smoke and haze from forest fires. It is susceptible to occasional floods; severe droughts; tsunamis; earthquakes; volcanoes; and, forest fires.
Location of Indonesia. Source: Vardion/Wikipedia
The Dutch began to colonize Indonesia in the early 17th century; Japan occupied the islands from 1942 to 1945. Indonesia declared its independence after Japan's surrender, but it required four years of intermittent negotiations, recurring hostilities, and UN mediation before the Netherlands agreed to transfer sovereignty in 1949. Free and fair legislative elections took place in 1999 after decades of repressive rule. Indonesia is now the world's third most populous democracy, the world's largest archipelagic state, and home to the world's largest Muslim population. Current issues include: alleviating poverty, improving education, preventing terrorism, consolidating democracy after four decades of authoritarianism, implementing economic and financial reforms, stemming corruption, holding the military and police accountable for human rights violations, addressing climate change, and controlling infectious diseases, particularly those of global and regional importance. In 2005, Indonesia reached a historic peace agreement with armed separatists in Aceh, which led to democratic elections in Aceh in December 2006. Indonesia continues to face low intensity armed resistance by the separatist Free Papua Movement.
Geography
IndonesiaMap. Source: CIA World factbook
Location: Southeastern Asia, archipelago between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. The archipelago includes 17,508 islands (6,000 inhabited); straddles equator; and is strategic location astride or along major sea lanes from Indian Ocean to Pacific Ocean
Geographic Coordinates: 5 00 S, 120 00 E
Area: 1,904,569 km2(1,811,569 km2 land and 93,000 km2 water)
arable land: 11.03%
permanent crops: 7.04%
other: 81.93% (2005)
Land Boundaries: Total: 2,830 km. Border countries: Timor-Leste (East Timor) 228 km, Malaysia 1,782 km, and Papua New Guinea 820 km
Coastline: 54,716 km
Maritime Claims (measured from claimed archipelagic straight baselines): territorial sea: 12 nautical miles. Exclusive economic zone: 200 nautical miles.
Note: Indonesia has a stated foreign policy objective of establishing stable fixed land and maritime boundaries with all of its neighbors; some sections of border along Timor-Leste's Oecussi exclave and maritime boundaries with Timor-Leste remain unresolved; many refugees from Timor-Leste who left in 2003 still reside in Indonesia and refuse repatriation; a 1997 treaty between Indonesia and Australia settled some parts of their maritime boundary but outstanding issues remain; ICJ's award of Sipadan and Ligitan islands to Malaysia in 2002 left the sovereignty of Unarang rock and the maritime boundary in the Ambalat oil block in the Celebes Sea in dispute; the ICJ decision has prompted Indonesia to assert claims to and to establish a presence on its smaller outer islands; Indonesia and Singapore continue to work on finalization of their 1973 maritime boundary agreement by defining unresolved areas north of Indonesia's Batam Island; Indonesian secessionists, squatters, and illegal migrants create repatriation problems for Papua New Guinea; maritime delimitation talks continue with Palau; Indonesian groups challenge Australia's claim to Ashmore Reef; Australia has closed parts of the Ashmore and Cartier Reserve to Indonesian traditional fishing and placed restrictions on certain catches
Natural Hazards: Occasional floods; severe droughts; tsunamis; earthquakes; volcanoes; forest fires
Terrain: Mostly coastal lowlands; larger islands have interior mountains. The highest point is Puncak Jaya 5,030 m
Climate: Tropical; hot, humid; more moderate in highlands
Ecology and Biodiversity
See Biological diversity in Sundaland and Biological diversity in Wallacea as well as the following ecoregions:
- Banda Sea Islands moist deciduous forests
- Biak-Numfoor rain forests
- Borneo lowland rain forests
- Borneo montane rain forests
- Borneo peat swamp forests
- Buru rain forests
- Central Range montane rain forests
- Eastern Java-Bali montane rain forests
- Eastern Java-Bali rain forests
- Halmahera rain forests
- Indonesian Sea large marine ecosystem
- Lesser Sundas deciduous forests
- Mentawai Islands rain forests
- Northern New Guinea montane rain forests
- Peninsular Malaysian rain forests
- Seram rain forests
- South China Sea Islands
- Southwest Borneo freshwater swamp forests
- Sulawesi lowland rain forests
- Sulawesi montane rain forests
- Sumatran freshwater swamp forests
- Sumatran lowland rain forests
- Sumatran montane rain forests
- Sumatran peat swamp forests
- Sumatran tropical pine forests
- Sumba deciduous forests
- Sunda Shelf mangroves
- Sundaland heath forests
- Timor and Wetar deciduous forests
- Trans Fly savanna and grasslands
- Western Java montane rain forests
- Western Java rain forests
- Yapen rain forests
Protected areas: See Komodo National Park, Lorentz National Park, Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra and Ujung Kulon National Park and Krakatau Nature Reserve
Government
Government Type: Republic
Capital: Jakarta
Administration: Indonesia has 30 provinces, 2 special regions (Aceh and Yogyakarta), and 1 special capital city district (Jakarta Raya). The provinces are: Bali, Banten, Bengkulu, Gorontalo, Jambi, Jawa Barat, Jawa Tengah, [Jawa Timur], Kalimantan Barat, Kalimantan Selatan, Kalimantan Tengah, Kalimantan Timur, Kepulauan Bangka Belitung, Kepulauan Riau, Lampung, Maluku, Maluku Utara, Nusa Tenggara Barat, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Papua, Papua Barat, Riau, Sulawesi Barat, Sulawesi Selatan, Sulawesi Tengah, Sulawesi Tenggara, Sulawesi Utara, Sumatera Barat, Sumatera Selatan, and Sumatera Utara.
Following the implementation of decentralization beginning on 1 January 2001, the 465 regencies and municipalities have become the key administrative units responsible for providing most government services.
Independence Date: 17 August 1945 (declared); 27 December 1949 (recognized by the Netherlands)
Legal System: Based on Roman-Dutch law, substantially modified by indigenous concepts and by new criminal procedures and election codes; has not accepted compulsory International Court of Justice jurisdiction
International Environmental Agreements
Indonesia is party to international agreements on: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands. It has signed, but not ratified an international agreement on Marine Life Conservation.
People and Society
Population: 245,613,043 (July 2011 est.) (4th largest after China, India, and the United States)
Age Structure:
0-14 years: 27.3% (male 34,165,213/female 32,978,841)
15-64 years: 66.5% (male 82,104,636/female 81,263,055)
65 years and over: 6.1% (male 6,654,695/female 8,446,603) (2011 est.)
Population Growth Rate: 1.069% (2011 est.)
Birthrate: 18.1 births/1,000 population (2011 est.)
Death Rate: 6.26 deaths/1,000 population (July 2011 est.)
Net Migration Rate: -1.15 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2011 est.)
Urbanization:44% of total population (2010) growing at 1.7% annual rate of change (2010-15 est.)
Life Expectancy at Birth: 71.33 years (male: 68.8 years; female: 73.99 years) (2011 est.)
Total Fertility Rate: 2.25 children born/woman (2011 est.)
Languages: Bahasa Indonesia (official, modified form of Malay), English, Dutch, local dialects (the most widely spoken of which is Javanese)
Literacy: 90.4% (male: 94%; female: 86.8%) (2004 est.)
Health
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fevervectorborne diseases: chikungunya, dengue fever, and malaria
Water
See Water profile of Indonesia
Total Renewable Water Resources: 2,838 cu km (1999)
Freshwater Withdrawal: Total: 82.78 cu km/yr (8% domestic, 1% industrial, 91% agricultural). Per capita: 372 cu m/yr (2000)
Agriculture
Agricultural products: Rice, cassava (tapioca), peanuts, rubber, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, copra; poultry, beef, pork, eggs.
Irrigated Land: 45,000 sq km (2003)
Resources
Natural Resources: Petroleum, tin, natural gas, nickel, timber, bauxite, copper, fertile soils, coal, gold, silver
Energy
See Energy profile of Indonesia
| Production | Consumption | Exports | Imports | Reserves | |
| Electricity | 129 billion kWh (2008 est.) | 119.3 billion kWh (2007 est.) | 0 kWh (2009 est.) | 0 kWh (2009 est.) | |
| Oil | 1.023 million bbl/day (2009 est.) | 1.115 million bbl/day (2009 est.) | 322,000 bbl/day (2009 est.) | 456,700 bbl/day (2009 est.) | 4.05 billion bbl (1 January 2010 est.) |
| Natural Gas | 85.7 billion cu m (2009 est.) | 45.2 billion cu m (2008) | 33.5 billion cu m (2008 est.) | 0 cu m (2008 est.) | 3.001 trillion cu m (1 January 2010 est.) |
Economy
Indonesia, a vast polyglot nation, has weathered the global financial crisis relatively smoothly because of its heavy reliance on domestic consumption as the driver of economic growth. Increasing investment by both local and foreign investors is also supporting solid growth. Although the economy slowed to 4.5% growth in 2009 from the 6%-plus growth rate recorded in 2007 and 2008, by 2010 growth returned to a 6% rate. During the recession, Indonesia outperformed most of its regional neighbors. The government made economic advances under the first administration of President Yudhoyono, introducing significant reforms in the financial sector, including tax and customs reforms, the use of Treasury bills, and capital market development and supervision. Indonesia's debt-to-GDP ratio in recent years has declined steadily because of increasingly robust GDP growth and sound fiscal stewardship, leading two of the three leading credit agencies to upgrade credit ratings for Indonesia's sovereign debt to one notch below investment grade. Indonesia still struggles with poverty and unemployment, inadequate infrastructure, corruption, a complex regulatory environment, and unequal resource distribution among regions. YUDHOYONO and his vice president, respected economist Boediono, have maintained broad continuity of economic policy, although the economic reform agendat has been slowed during the first year of their term by corruption scandals and the departure of an internationally respected finance minister. In late 2010, increasing inflation, driven by higher and volatile food prices, posed an increasing challenge to economic policymakers and threatened to push millions of the near-poor below the poverty line. The government in 2011 faces the ongoing challenge of improving Indonesia's infrastructure to remove impediments to growth, while addressing climate change concerns, particularly with regard to conserving Indonesia's forests and peatlands, the focus of a potentially trailblazing $1 billion REDD+ pilot project.
GDP: (Purchasing Power Parity): $1.033 trillion (2010 est.)
GDP: (Official Exchange Rate): $695.1 billion (2010 est.)
GDP-real growth rate: 6% (2010 est.)
GDP- per capita (PPP): $4,300 (2010 est.)
GDP- composition by sector:
agriculture: 16.5%
industry: 46.4%
services: 37.1% (3rd quarter, 2010 est.)
Industries: Petroleum and natural gas, textiles, apparel, footwear, mining, cement, chemical fertilizers, plywood, rubber, food, and tourism.
Currency: Indonesian rupiah (IDR)
Citation
Central Intelligence Agency (Lead Author);World Wildlife Fund (Contributing Author);CIA World Factbook (Content Source);Peter Saundry (Topic Editor) "Indonesia". In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth October 13, 2009; Last revised Date December 31, 2011; Retrieved February 9, 2012 <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Indonesia>
The Author
The Central Intelligence Agency was created in 1947 with the signing of the National Security Act by President Harry S. Truman. The act also created a Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) to serve as head of the United States intelligence community; act as the principal adviser to the President for intelligence matters related to the national security; and serve as head of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 amended the National Securit ... (Full Bio)
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