Indonesia
More than 17000 islands, of which over are 600 inhabited. 1.9 million square kilometers of land, more than 3.3 million square kilometers of sea. 54000 kilometers of coastline. 300 ethnic groups . 255 million inhabitants. The Republic of Indonesia can come up with quite a few superlatives.
The islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali and Borneo are on the continental shelf, the other islands are mostly surrounded by deep water. The capital Jakarta has around 18 million inhabitants.
In 1945, parts of Indonesia were declared independent, four years later, the Dutch gave up their colonial claims.
Due to its location, Indonesia has a very diverse fauna and flora. This applies particularly to a region of Wallacea, The Wallace Line, an area between Borneo in the west and New Guinea in the east, in which Australian and Asian nature merge – and in which the island of Sahaung and Bangka lies. The area is named after the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace.
The mixing was made possible during the Ice Age, when the sea level was 125 meters lower, existed between the present islands land connections over which animals and plants could spread.
On the one hand, a mixture was formed between the Australian and the Asian nature, on the other hand, endemic species developed in the Wallacea, ie those that occur only here. In Sulawesi, this applies to most mammals, reptiles and amphibians, but also to many birds. Marsupials like the Bear Cuscus live on Sulawesi.
