Why Indonesia can not count your Islands
Indonesia still does not know how many of her Islands, but decided to count all the up to August, when in new York after a five year hiatus will convene the United Nations conference on the standardization of geographical names.
How did it happen that the country is caught in their own geography?
As you the island call
The United Nations Convention on the law of the sea defines an island as a land of natural origin, surrounded by water and protrudes from it at any sea level. The name of the island shall be approved only if it is familiar to at least two local residents.
Meanwhile, 60% of the Indonesian Islands nameless, told Bi-bi-si Susan Herawati local coalition advocates for the rights of fishermen.
She cited the example of a small island near Lombok, occupied by a private resort.
The world’s largest archipelago
Indonesia is spread over an area of 1.9 million sq. km Audit of this area — a very trivial task.
No one still didn’t count even popular among Metropolitan residents of the Islands and atolls near Jakarta — a group simply called the Thousand Islands.
In the 1996 act to the archipelago was classified as 17 508 plots of land. The list was approximate and did not take into account the criteria of the UN.
The Indonesian authorities expect that the registration of the Islands at the UN will protect the vast territory and large-scale fishery resources of the country.
To visit each island
United Nations conference on the standardization of geographical names collected every five years, and the next is in August in new York — Indonesian officials hope to register at least 1,700 new Islands.
“Now we have so many, but perhaps the list will be added. We continue to check and verify, and will continue to do this until the end of July,” said Beams Budianto, head of the audit unit of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and fisheries.
“We should visit each island, recording the coordinates, the name, what it means; to describe the history and geography”.
Sisyphean task
Environmentalists are worried that thousands of Indonesian Islands can be under water if the Global sea level will continue to rise as a result of climate change on the planet.
At the same time, accounting and control of risks becoming a Sisyphean task: according to the chief surveyor of the Balcony, it specialists constantly discover new Islands, resulting from volcanic and seismic activity.
The rush and concerns for their territory is not unfounded. In 2002, two Islands in Indonesia sued Malaysia. Two more she had lost with the recognition of the independence of East Timor.