PAGES Indonesia

Welcome to PAGES Indonesia

Indonesia consists of a cluster of about 18,000 islands near the equator, located between the Pacific and Indian Oceans to the east and west, and the Asian and Australian land masses to the north and south. Accordingly, Indonesia’s seasonal climate is controlled by the migrating Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the interaction of the tropical Indopacific with the large land masses in both hemispheres, that is by the Asian and Australian Monsoons. On interannual timescales, Indonesia’s climate and environment is affected by large scale ocean-atmosphere processes in the adjacent tropical seas, namely the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD).

The sensitivity of the Indonesian environment to these various climatic subsystems makes Indonesia a most suitable place for paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions (see science highlight) on interannual to geologic timescales. Furthermore it makes Indonesia an interesting target for understanding climatic-environmental changes, in particular, for studying the interplay between components in the climate-environment system, such as land ocean linkages, Pacific-Indian Ocean exchange, ENSO-IOD coupling, and others.

With roughly three quarters of Indonesia’s area being ocean, it is not surprising that two oceanic features are the main targets of international research. These features are the Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP) and the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF), both being key to the distribution of heat and salt/freshwater on a global scale and hence of crucial importance for the global climate system. Several international joint research activities and expeditions have been carried out on the ITF and on paleoclimate in the Indonesian region e.g. Sonne cruises 184 and 185 during 2005, IMAGES cruises IV (1998), WEPAMA (2001), PECTEN (2005) and MARCO POLO (2005), INSTANT.

Indonesia still has about 10% of the world's tropical rainforest. However, man-made deforestation has changed land cover substantially towards agricultural land, which has made it a subject for regional and global environmental studies. Indonesia's forest cover has declined considerably over the past decade at a rate of about 1% per year. Approx. 20 million ha of forest in Indonesia were lost, as forest areas were converted for other purposes. According to Holmes (2000), 10% of forests have been used for timber plantation, 12% for estate crops, 6% for pioneer farming, 12% have been developed by small investors, and 9% have been damaged by forest fires.

For additional contributions, improvements, etc. concerning the Indonesian National PAGES web page, please contact Sri Yudawati Cahyarini.


References:
Holmes, D. (2000), Deforestation in Indonesia: A review of the situation in Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi, Jakarta, World Bank.