Raja Ampat Islands

Raja Ampat Islands is a series of four adjacent islands located in the western part of the Bird’s Head (Vogelkoop) Papua Island. Administratively, this cluster is under Raja Ampat, West Papua province. The islands are now a destination for divers who are interested in the beauty of the underwater scenery. Four islands that are members named by the four biggest islands, namely Pulau Waigeo, Misool Island, Salawati Island and Island Batanta.
The origins and history

The origin of the name of Raja Ampat according to local myth comes from a woman who
In the course of history, the Raja Ampat has long been inhabited by the nobility and implement custom systems Maluku. In this system, a set of human society. Each village is headed by a king. Since its establishment five Muslim sultanate in Maluku, Raja Ampat claims to be part of the Sultanate of Tidore. After the Sultanate Tidore defeat of the Netherlands, the Raja Ampat Islands became part of the Dutch East Indies claims.
community
Raja Ampat Islands society generally traditional fishermen who lived in small villages are located far apart and different islands. They are a friendly community receive visitors from outside, especially if we bring a souvenir for them in the form of nut or candy. This stuff becomes a sort of ‘indian peace pipe’ in Raja Ampat. Events chatting with eating nut also called “Para-para Pinang” often take turns throwing each other mob, the local term for funny stories.
They are Muslims and Christians, and often within a family or clan are members embraced one of the two religions. It makes the people of Raja Ampat remains in harmony despite different beliefs.
Abundant natural resources

Raja Ampat Islands is a place that has the potential to serve as a tourist attraction, especially dive travel. Raja Ampat Islands waters according to various sources, is one of the 10 best waters for diving sites around the world. In fact, it may also be recognized as number one for the completeness of underwater flora and fauna at this time.
Dr. John Veron, coral experienced experts from Australia, for example, in a site it is revealed, the Raja Ampat Islands located at the westernmost tip of the island of Papua, about 50 miles northwest of Sorong, the region has the best reefs in Indonesia. About 450 species of coral had been identified during the two weeks of research in that area.
The expert team from Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, and the National Institute of Oceanography (LON) Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) once rapid assessments in 2001 and 2002. As a result, they note in these waters there are more than 540 kinds of hard corals (75% of the total species in the world), more than 1,000 species of reef fish, 700 species of molluscs, and the highest record for gonodactyloid stomatopod crustaceans. It makes 75% of the world’s coral species are in Raja Ampat. None of the places with the same area has a number of coral species as much as this.
There are some reefs are still very good condition with the percentage of live coral cover up to 90%, ie in Dampier Strait (strait between the island and the island Waigeo Batanta), Kofiau Islands, archipelagic Southeast Misool and Wayag Islands. Types of coral reefs in Raja Ampat is generally a fringing reef with the contours of steep ramps up. But it also found the type of atoll and the type of burns or taka. In some places like the village Saondarek, when the lowest tides, coral reefs can be seen without a dive and with his own adaptation, corals can still be alive despite being in the open air and exposed to direct sunlight.
Unique species that can be found when diving is some kind of dwarf sea horse,
Because the area of ​​many islands and narrow straits, then most of the dive at a particular time has a strong current. It is also possible to do a drift dive, dive, following the strong current with very clear water as he broke through schools of fish.
Prehistoric relics and history
In the area of ​​cluster Misool found prehistoric remains in the form of the hand stamp that is attached to a wall of rock. Uniquely, labeling this hand is very close to sea level and not in the cave. According to estimates, the age of hand labeling about 50,000 years and became part of a series of human manual deployment path of the western region of the archipelago towards Papua and Melanesia.
The rest of the wrecked plane from World War II can be found in some of the dive sites, such as on the island of Wai.
Access
Visiting these islands is not too difficult although does take time and considerable cost. We can use the airline from Jakarta or Bali to Sorong via Makassar and Ambon and Manado for approximately 6 hours of flight. From Sorong, a fairly large city with a fairly complete facilities. To explore the Raja Ampat there are two choices, take a tour by boat or stay in a resort Phinisi Raja Ampat Dive Lodge. Although most tourists who come to Raja Ampat is currently the divers, in fact the location is attractive also for tourists non divers because it also has sandy beaches and white is very beautiful, a cluster of islands karst nan stunning and the flora and fauna unique endemic like paradise red, bird of paradise Wilson, maleo Waigeo, various parrots and parrot, possum Waigeo, as well as various types of orchids.
Threats to these islands
Biodiversity in the Raja Ampat has made itself have a high level of threat as well. It can be seen from the destruction of coral reefs and forests. Damage to coral reefs in general is due to fishing activities which are not environmentally friendly such as bombs, cyanide and roots bore (liquid from the processed roots of a tree similar to fish poison).
Conservation efforts

To preserve the underwater Raja Ampat Islands, conservation efforts are indispensable in this area. There are two international organizations that concern about the preservation of natural resources Raja Ampat, namely CI (Conservation International) and TNC (The Nature Conservancy). The government has set itself the seas around South Waigeo, which includes the small islands such as Gam, Mansuar, Yeben groups and groups Batang Pele, was endorsed as a Marine Sanctuary. According to the Minister of Forestry Decree No. 81 / KptsII / 1993, the total area is 60,000 hectares.
In addition, several other marine areas have been proposed to be a conservation area. Each is a Marine Sanctuary South Misool Island, Kofiau Island,  Asian Island, Sayang Island and Ayau Island.