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.
Waterfall Cimahi, has a height of about 87 m, is one of the highest waterfall in Bandung and surrounding areas. Cimahi name comes from the name of the river that flows above the River Cimahi tipped in Situ (lake) and flows into the Lembang Cimahi. This waterfall is located at an altitude of 1050 m above sea level with temperatures in the region range from 18-22 degrees Celsius.
