It makes sense that Indonesians call their country Tanah Air Kita (literally, 'Our Land and Water'), as it is the world's most expansive archipelago. Of its 17,500-plus islands, about 6000 are inhabited. These diverse lands and surrounding waters have an impressive collection of plant and animal life. Yet this very bounty is its own worst enemy, as resource exploitation threatens virtually every corner of Indonesia.
Just as the mash-up of cultures that form the political entity of Indonesia happened not too long ago, the mash-up of land that Indonesians call home also occurred relatively recently – geologically speaking. If Sulawesi looks a bit like an island caught in a blender, that is because it is where three major chunks of Earth converged in a vortex of tectonic chaos. About 30 million years ago, the Australian plate (carrying Papua and the Mulukus) careened into the Sunda Shelf (carrying Sumatra, Java and Borneo) from the south, while the twirling Phillipine plate was pushed in from the east by the Pacific plate. The result: a landscape and ecology as diverse and dynamic as the people who live here.
Much of Indonesia is defined by its 150 volcanoes: spectacular peaks towering above the forests and people below. Some trekkers are drawn to their steaming summits, while others flock to their colourful lakes and bubbling mud pits. For the locals, nutrient-rich soils provide high crop yields, allowing for higher population density – a benefit that comes with significant risk.
Over five million Indonesians live within the 'danger zone' of active volcanoes. Large and small eruptions are a near constant occurrence, and some have literally made history. Ash from the cataclysmic 1815 eruption of Gunung Tambora in Sumbawa killed 71,000 people and caused crop failures in Europe. The 1883 eruption of Krakatau between Java and Sumatra generated tsunamis that killed tens of thousands. Super-volcano Toba on Sumatra, which may have halved the world's human population 75,000 years ago, quietly reawakened in 2015.
Understandably, volcanoes play a pivotal role in most Indonesian cultures. In Bali and Java, major places of worship grace the slopes of prominent volcanic cones, and eruptions are taken as demonstrations of divine disappointment or anger.
Indonesia is stretched along part of the Pacific 'Ring of Fire'. Tectonic forces cause the Indo-Australian and Pacific plates to plunge under the Eurasian plate, where they melt 150km beneath the surface. Some of this molten rock works its way upward where it can erupt in violent and deadly explosions.
Even more pernicious, as these plates slide past each other, they can cause devastating earthquakes and tsunamis. The 2004 tsunami in Sumatra was caused by an offshore earthquake, the third-largest ever recorded, and generated waves up to 10m tall. The tsunami killed 167,799 Indonesians and displaced half a million more.
From tiny tarsiers to enormous stinking flowers, Indonesia's natural diversity is astounding, and we still don't know the complete story. Scientists continually discover new species such as a fanged frog in Sulawasi in 2015, an owl in Lombok in 2013, and three walking sharks since 2007 in the Malukus. Meanwhile, the 'lost world' of Papua's Foja mountains is a constant source of firsts, including the world's smallest wallaby, recorded in 2010. Unfortunately, the pace of discovery lags far behind the rate of habitat destruction, meaning some of Indonesia's rich biological heritage will pass unrecorded into extinction.
Great apes, tigers, elephants and monkeys – lots of monkeys – plus one mean lizard are just some of the more notable critters you may encounter in Indonesia. Here you can find an astonishing 12% of the world's mammal species, and 17% of its bird species.
The diversity is partly a result of evolution occurring in two distinct ecozones, the Australian and Asian, which were later brought together by tectonic migration. This is why you won't find marsupials on the western islands, or tigers in the east.
The world's largest arboreal mammal, Indonesia's orangutans (Click here) are an iconic part of the nation's image. Although they once swung through the forest canopy throughout all of Southeast Asia, they are now found only in Sumatra and Borneo. The shaggy orange great apes rarely come down from the trees. They spend most of their day searching for and eating forest fruit before building their characteristic nests for the night. Some populations use tools to raid termite colonies (for a rare protein-rich delicacy), and researchers have observed individuals learning new behaviour from others, suggesting an intelligence rare in the animal kingdom.
Orangutans have long reproductive cycles, with mothers caring for their young for up to eight years. This makes them particularly susceptible to population decline, and less than 60,000 individuals remain in the wild. Researchers fear that the isolated populations will not survive the continued loss of habitat due to logging and agriculture.
Some orangutan rehabilitation centres are open to visitors, but there is nothing like spotting these noble creatures in the wild.
Tales of evil beasts with huge claws, menacing teeth and yellow forked tongues floated around the islands of Nusa Tenggara for centuries. This continued until around 100 years ago, when the first Westerners brought one out of its namesake island home near Flores.
As mean as these 3m-long 150kg lizards look, their disposition is worse. Scores of humans have perished after being attacked, and Komodos regularly stalk and eat small deer. One researcher compared the sound of a Komodo pounding across the ground in pursuit to that of a machine gun. They have also been known to follow bite victims for miles, waiting as the venom from glands located between their teeth slowly poisons and kills their prey within 24 hours.
Astrapias, sicklebills, rifle birds and manucodes are just a few of the 1600 species of exotic feathered creatures you'll see in the skies of Indonesia, 380 of which you'll only find here. On Papua alone, there isn't just one species called 'bird of paradise', but 30. For many a birder, watching a pair of these perform their spectacular mating dance is the dream of a lifetime.
Birdwatching is popular in many of the national parks. Guides are often fantastic at spotting birds, but may not know much more about them than you. The second edition of A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Indonesia is your most comprehensive resource. On Sulawesi, Tangkoko-Batuangas Dua Saudara Nature Reserve has regular birdwatching tours. In Bali, you can go on guided bird walks in and around Ubud.
Papua easily wins the birdwatching crown, however. Its range of birds includes migrating species from Australia and as far afield as Siberia.
Papua's glamorous birds of paradise are a product of extreme sexual selection. In a place where food is abundant, and predators scarce, the main factor deciding who gets to reproduce is the female's choice of mate – and, it turns out, the ladies love a flamboyant fella.
While the female tends to look unremarkable, male birds of paradise may be adorned with fancy plumage, perform elaborate dances, or develop bizarre calls, all with the hopes of inspiring a lady to give him her number. The Wilson's bird of paradise, endemic to Indonesia, has both bright red and yellow feathers, as well as a curling tail like a handlebar moustache, while the Parotia dons a tutu and twirls for his potential mate.
Indonesia's incredible range of life on land is easily matched beneath the waves. The waters around Komodo, Sulawesi, the north coast of Papua, and even some spots in Java, Bali and Kalimantan are home to a kaleidoscope of corals, reef dwellers and pelagic marine life. In the Raja Ampat region of Papua there are at least 450 species of coral, six times more than found in the entire Caribbean. Thriving in that environment are over 1600 species of fish, with divers encountering up to 300 in a single dive. Manta rays are also found in abundance, along with 118 species of shark, including the endangered hammerhead and sawtooth.
Exit the oceans to head upriver, and the story continues: Irrawaddy dolphins and finless porpoises occupy many of Indonesia's bays; a single population of truly freshwater dolphins (called pesut) can be found in Kalimantan's Mahakam River; and the world's smallest fish (paedocypris progenetica, 7.9mm) occupies Sumatra's peat swamps.
Indonesia's plant diversity rivals the Amazon, and its botanical riches have defined its history. Wars were fought over the archipelago's spices while high-value timber extraction has opened the forests for settlement and further exploitation.
Many species are showy bloomers, though these are usually rare outside of cultivated areas. Orchids are abundant (2500 different species at last count) and are best seen at Bali's excellent botanical gardens. You can expect a riot of fragrant frangipani, lotus and hibiscus blossoms as well as a festival of other blooms across the archipelago. Impossibly complex heliconias hang from vines in all their multifaceted crimson, orange and golden glory.
Amid all of the flashy flora are many edible plants, including some of the world's most (in)famous fruits. Queen Victoria is reported to have been manic for the subtly sweet mangosteen from Maluku, while some strains of Kalimantan's durian are sought after by connoisseurs. Bananas are common in many varieties, all very different from the supermarket sameness back home.
Meanwhile, in forested areas, regal trees provide welcome shade from the equatorial sunshine. As you trek below, the plants in the canopy above are locked in a deadly battle for that very same sun. Towering dipterocarp rely on brute strength to push through the canopy, while vines and lianas sneak their way to the top on the shoulders of giants. Some fig species start life clinging to the upper branches of other trees before dropping a network of roots that surround, strangle, and occasionally kill their host.
Look for coffee plantations, especially in the hills of Bali near Munduk. On Maluku – the original Spice Island – you can still catch the scent of vanilla and cloves, the latter most often wafting off the glowing end of a sweet kretek cigarette.
But it wouldn't be Indonesia without some real characters. Consider Rafflesia arnoldii, the world's largest flower, and the Amorphophallus titanum, the world's tallest flower. Both can be found, usually by their smell, on Sumatra and parts of Kalimantan and Java.
In areas where the soils are poor, some plants have become carnivores. Nepenthes species, known as pitcher plants, lure ants and other insects into their slippery chambers full of digestive juices. When things get really tough, some turn to even more alternative sources of nitrogen: bat guano and shrew poop.
Despite a constant nipping at the edges by illegal loggers and farmers, Indonesia still has large tracts of protected forest and parks, and many new protected areas have been gazetted in recent years. National parks receive greater international recognition and funding than nature, wildlife and marine reserves, of which there are also many in Indonesia.
Most of Indonesia's national parks are isolated, but the extra effort required to get to them is more than rewarded by the country's magnificent wilderness. Visitor facilities are minimal at best, but at many of the parks you'll find locals who are enthusiastic about their land and are ready to guide you to its hidden gems.
Indonesia's islands continue to be deforested at an alarming rate through illegal logging, conversion to palm-oil plantations, and mining. Since the year 2000, over 16 million hectares of forest cover have been cleared in Indonesia, an area roughly the size of Greece. Six million hectares of that were old growth forest, with almost half of that occurring in theoretically protected areas. And this rate does not seem to be abating; indeed, in both 2009 and 2012 as much as two million hectares of forest was destroyed. Indonesia now destroys its forests almost twice as fast as Brazil.
Feeling the heat of international pressure, Indonesia issued a sweeping moratorium on logging in 2011 that left loopholes large enough to drive a fleet of logging trucks through. Deforestation actually increased. Meanwhile, companies independently make grandiose green-washing pledges to end their deforestation, then turn around and hire local smallholders to clear and plant the land for them. The forestry department draws lines around swaths of newly protected land, while local ministers use different maps to carve it up and sell the logging rights. The government declares formal recognition of indigenous people's right to manage their forests, but their claims are then contested in long-running legal battles.
Coal, oil, gold, nickel, tin, aluminium, copper, iron ore, diamonds…what lies beneath Indonesia's forest is just as tempting for exploitation as what grows above. Although mining can be done in an ecologically responsible manner, a lack of oversight and poor enforcement of regulations has resulted in a legacy of environmental disaster. Vast swaths of land have been dug open with little regard for environmental impact and almost no reclamation.
A ban on export of raw ore enacted in early 2015 will have serious implications for Indonesia as companies rush to build domestic smelters. These processing facilities will require extensive infrastructure investments, including power plants and roads, and will further tax natural resources. Environmental groups also worry that the historical lack of industry oversight in Indonesia will allow these new plants to cut corners and ignore safeguards.
| Park | Location | Features | Activities | Best time to Visit | Page |
| Gunung Leuser | Sumatra | rivers, rainforest, mountains; tigers, rhinoceros, elephants, primates such as orangutans, white-breasted Thomas's leaf monkeys | orangutan viewing, wildlife spotting, birdwatching; trekking, rafting | Dec-Mar | (Click here) |
| Tanjung Puting | Kalimantan | tropical rainforest, mangrove forest, wetlands; orangutans, macaques, proboscis monkeys, diverse wildlife | orangutan viewing, birdwatching | May-Sep | (Click here) |
| Kelimutu | Nusa Tenggara | coloured lakes | vulcanology, short walks | Apr-Sep | (Click here) |
| Gunung Rinjani | Nusa Tenggara | volcano | volcano hiking | Apr-Sep | (Click here) |
| Ujung Kulon | Java | lowland rainforest, scrub, grassy plains, swamps, sandy beaches; one-horned rhinoceros, otters, squirrels, white-breasted Thomas's leaf monkeys, gibbons | jungle walks; wildlife spotting | Apr-Oct | (Click here) |
| Gunung Bromo | Java | volcanic landscape | crater climbing | Apr-Oct | (Click here) |
| Pulau Bunaken | Sulawesi | coral-fringed islands | snorkelling, diving, island lazing | Jun-Jan | (Click here) |
| Kerinci Seblat | Sumatra | mountainous rainforest, one of Sumatra’s highest peaks | trekking; wildlife spotting, birdwatching | Dec-Mar | (Click here) |
| Komodo | Nusa Tenggara | Komodo dragon | snorkelling, diving; being chased by wildlife | Apr-Sep | (Click here) |
| Bali Barat | Bali | low hills, grasslands, coral-fringed coasts | snorkelling, diving; wildlife spotting | year-round | (Click here) |
The side effects of deforestation and resource extraction are felt across the nation and beyond: floods and landslides wash away valuable topsoil, rivers become sluggish and fetid, and haze from clearing fires blankets Malaysia and Singapore every dry season, increasing international tensions. The carbon released from deforestation and fires is a significant contributor to global climate change, which in a vicious cycle creates a longer dry season allowing for more fires.
The problems flow right through to Indonesia's coastline and seas, where more than 80% of reef habitat is considered to be at risk. A long history of cyanide and bomb fishing has left much of Indonesia's coral lifeless or crumbled. Shark finning and manta hunting have taken their toll on populations, while overfishing threatens to disrupt the marine ecosystem.
Meanwhile, the burgeoning middle class is straining the nation's infrastructure. Private vehicles clog urban streets, creating choking air pollution; waste-removal services have difficulty coping with household and industrial refuse; and a lack of sewage disposal makes water from most sources undrinkable without boiling, putting further pressure on kerosene and firewood supplies.
The Greater Sunda Islands, comprising Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and Bali, were once connected to the Malaysian peninsula and Asian mainland. When the glaciers receded and ocean levels rose, the Sunda Shelf flooded isolating the islands and the animal populations that migrated there. Some large Asian land animals still survive in this area, including tigers, rhinoceroses, leopards and sun bears – but their existence is tenuous at best.
Despite lingering claims of sightings, the Javan tiger was declared extinct in 2003. The Sumatran tiger is literally fighting for survival. There have been several incidents of tigers killing loggers trespassing in protected habitats, and of poachers killing tigers, also in protected habitats. Fewer than 500 individuals remain in the wild. Leopards (the black leopard, or panther, is more common in Southeast Asia) are rare but still live in Sumatra and in Java's Ujung Kulon National Park. This park is also home to the 60 remaining one-horned Javan rhinoceroses. Rhinos have not fared well in Indonesia and the two-horned variety, found in Sumatra and possibly Kalimantan, is also on the endangered list.
Perhaps the most famous endangered Indonesian animal is the orangutan, which is under constant threat from logging and conversion of habitat to palm-oil plantations. In one especially tragic case, an adult orangutan that wandered onto a palm-oil plantation died after locals set the tree it was sheltering in on fire to drive it off. Poachers regularly shoot mothers to sell their babies as pets. Also victims of the pet trade and habitat loss, all Indonesian gibbon species are endangered.
Fewer than 2000 Sumatran elephants remain in the wild, and are being driven into conflict with people since 70% of their habitat has been cleared for plantations and farming. The pygmy elephants in North Kalimantan have been reduced to fewer than 100.
You will still see plenty of animal exploitation in Indonesia, including performing monkeys on street corners in big cities and endangered birds in markets. Taking photos or paying the handlers money only encourages this behaviour.
Shops sell turtle-shell products, rare seashells, snakeskin, stuffed birds and framed butterflies. Avoid these. Not only are they illegal, but importing them into most countries is banned and items will probably be confiscated by customs. See the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES; www.cites.org) for more information.
Some animal exploitation is more subtle. Consider the life of a cute civet locked in a cage in a warehouse force fed coffee to 'naturally' process the beans, for example. It's a far cry from the happy story plantations sell to justify charging outrageous prices for kopi luwak (civet coffee).
Finally, rubbish is an obvious problem. And while packing out your biscuit wrapper from some already rubbish-strewn waterfall may feel futile, your guides and other trekkers will notice, and might even join you. It is a small, but important step in the right direction.
There is much to be done to protect Indonesia's magnificence. While some steps are being made on the national scale to address the issues, a history of decentralisation and an ingrained culture of corruption means that many problems are rooted in the local and regional levels – which is where they must be addressed. Community organizing is becoming more common as the local people grow increasingly frustrated with the situation, and less worried about the consequences of standing up for their land and their health.
Deforestation is a massive problem, threatening this island's rainforests and all its inhabitants, including the Sumatran tiger, Sumatran elephant, Sumatran rhinoceros, and Sumatran orangutan. National parks and other protected lands have consistently been sold off to logging companies and palm-oil plantations. Plans for hundreds of kilometres of new roads through the Leuser ecosystem threaten this critical habitat, while smoke from fires constantly chokes neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia during the dry season.
In a positive move, Indonesia finally ratified a 12-year-old transboundary haze agreement in 2014, becoming the last Southeast Asian nation to do so. Around the same time, anti-corruption officials arrested Riau's governor for allegedly accepting bribes from palm-oil companies. In late 2015, conservation groups backed by the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation won the battle for a 60-year lease of 44,000 hectares of critical habitat.
As Indonesia's most densely populated island, it's not surprising that rampant development causes widespread flooding in Jakarta, Semarang and other cities every rainy season. This results in mass social upheaval and chokes surviving coastal mangroves. Although Jakarta has begun purchasing heavy equipment to remove garbage from the city's rivers, unless something is done about the 70,000 tonnes of rubbish dumped into the waterways every year, it may be a losing battle.
Java's longest river, the Cirtarum, is also one of the world's most polluted from both rubbish and chemical dumping by a growing industrial sector. A 15-year US$500 million loan from the Asian Development Bank is supposed to go toward its clean-up and rehabilitation.
Deforestation may have widespread implications, but an even more pernicious threat targets some of Indonesia's most imperilled species: the booming international trade in animals and animal parts. The growing demand is largely fuelled by the rise of China's wealthy class and their conspicuous consumption of exotic food and medicine. The use of animal parts is often loosely attributed to traditional Chinese medicine, though some products are relatively recent additions, and there is little to no scientific evidence that any have true medicinal value.
Regardless, tiger demand has increased as the newly rich seek out status-confirming products like tiger bone wine, which can sell for $250 per bottle, and is believed to cure arthritis. Shark fin soup, claimed to increase virility, drives a US$500-million-per-year 'finning' industry – a harvesting practice whereby poachers cut off fins and dump the sharks back in the water to bleed to death. In 2014, Indonesian authorities confiscated 55 porcupines, whose bezoar stones (sometimes found in their digestive tracts) are believed to cure cancer, and sun bear poaching is on the rise for their gall bladders.
The world's most trafficked animal, pangolins (or scaly anteater) are covered in scales which people dry and powder to treat everything from swelling and arthritis to 'women possessed by devils and ogres'. Their meat is also a highly prized delicacy throughout Asia, and in Vietnam, restaurants openly sell pangolin for US$250 a kilogram. A 2015 bust in Sumatra confiscated 96 live pangolin along with five tonnes more of frozen animals and 77kg of scales estimated to be worth $1.8million.
Deforestation and resource extraction occur in Kalimantan on an unprecedented scale. Coal-mining permits for over half of the land around the city of Samarinda have been issued, resulting in widespread flooding that costs the government tens of millions of dollars in damages each year. Indonesian health officials have warned that residents along the Mahakam river are at high risk of illness and skin disease due to pollution.
During the dry seasons of 2014 and 2015, smog from hundreds of unstoppable fires shut down airports and caused widespread respiratory illness. For the first time, Indonesia's government began cracking down in 2015, fining multiple companies for intentionally starting fires. Meanwhile, several indigenous communities have secured official recognition of their rights to ancestral lands, and some are developing ecotourism initiatives to provide alternative income for their village.
This beautiful island is its own worst enemy: it can't help being popular. Walhi, the Indonesian Forum for Environment (www.walhi.or.id), estimates that the average hotel room uses 3000L of water. The typical golf course needs three million litres a day. Hence, a place fabled for its water is now running short. In addition, rice fields are being converted to commercial land at a rate of about 600 to 1000 hectares a year.
Meanwhile, a plan to create a golf course and shopping mall on top of 700 hectares of mangrove forest near Denpasar, euphemistically called the Benoa Bay Reclamation Project, continues to be a flashpoint for Bali's environmentalists. Feasibility studies predict the project will cause widespread flooding and destroy local fisheries.
Conflict over mining near the beautiful dive areas of Bangka Island took an ugly turn in 2014 when officers from the company harassed a group of foreign divers, forcing them to surface and hauling them to shore for questioning. The local government has granted a Chinese-owned company permits to mine for iron ore without performing an environmental impact assessment, and without approval from the Ministry of Forestry. Also threatening area reefs are organised networks of cyanide fishing bankrolled by foreign bosses.
On southern Lombok, unprecedented new development in the previously untouched and beautiful beach area of Kuta will have untold environmental consequences. On the other hand, in 2015, Lombok's governor did reject a plan to transport 23 million cubic metres of sand from his island to use as back-fill in the controversial Benoa Bay Reclamation Project on neighbouring Bali; and nearby, the Gili Eco Trust continues to make great strides toward greening the Gili islands (Click here).
Things are not looking good in West Sumbawa, however, where authorities struggle to get a handle on illegal gold mining where over 1000 small operations dump a steady stream of mercury into the island's waterways. Elsewhere, dynamite fishing and poaching by locals is an ongoing concern in Unesco-listed Komodo National Park.
A timber-harvesting scheme threatens to destroy half of the forest of Aru, one of Indonesia's biodiversity hotspots. The land was slated for 500,000 hectares of sugar-cane plantations, but the plan was rejected in 2014 after international outcry. However, the plans resurfaced again in 2015.
The Maluku islands are also prime poaching ground for the wild bird trade. Populations of endemic and rare species have plummeted in recent years, especially songbirds, which collectors buy to enter into lucrative singing contests.
At the time of research, President Jokowi was poised to recreate the environmental catastrophe of the failed Mega Rice Project (Click here), which destroyed millions of hectares of Kalimantan's peat forests and produced nothing. In a visit to Merauke in 2015 he announced plans to revitalise the controversial plan to clear 1.2 million hectares of forest over three years to make way for large-scale industrial agriculture. Ultimately the plan calls for 4.6 million hectares of new rice production in the area, despite the fact that the land is already home to some of Papau's long-marginalised indigenous groups.
As the environmental situation becomes more dire, more Indonesians are taking notice. Although international groups like World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy have strong and effective presences in Indonesia, it is the burgeoning local environmental movements that will exact real and lasting change.