Indonesia's outlying islands may disappear

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 17 Feb 09;

Indonesia’s outermost islands face the risk of disappearing altogether because of human-induced climate change, and will require special measures by the government to keep them firmly on the map.

Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) researcher Dewi Fortuna Anwar said the government should ensure the physical presence of its citizens on those islands and build a “high wall” to prevent the islands from succumbing to rising sea levels.

“The government should finalize maritime border negotiations with neighboring countries as soon as possible and ensure the outermost islands remain in place,” she said Monday after a seminar on developments on the country’s borders.

“The government could also reclaim land off low-lying islands.”

Global warming is widely blamed for causing rising sea levels, temperatures and acidity in Indonesia.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi said earlier that Indonesia had 17,504 small islands, of which 9,634 remained unnamed. The ministry is currently verifying 13,374 islands and drafting a profile of the 92 outermost islands.

He added Indonesia had already lost some islets to rising sea levels.

The government has warned that a 1-meter rise in sea levels could wash away 405,000 hectares of coastal areas and 2,000 islands. At present, the annual sea-level rise in Indonesia is 0.8 millimeters.

Tiny island nations, like the Maldives, have repeatedly called for assistance from the international community to protect their islands from rising seas.

Dewi warned that if the country’s outermost islands were lost, it would cause big problems, including on territorial borders and the economic exclusive zone (EEZ).

Indonesia has 108,000 kilometers of coastline and a total area, including the EEZ, of 5.8 million square kilometers.

Dewi said Indonesia was still negotiating its maritime borders with Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.

Indonesia shares land and maritime borders with 10 countries: India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and the Republic of Palau.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) defines how states may draw their territorial borders using baselines between the outermost points of the outermost islands.

The outermost islands also serve as the baseline to determine a country’s contiguous zones, EEZ and continental shelf.

Dewi said the government could build lighthouses on its border islands to herald the country’s presence there to the international community.

The National Coordinating Agency for Surveys and Mapping (Bakorsutanal) said Indonesia had finished determining its borders with neighboring countries.

Agency head Rudolf Matindas said there was no need too worry about climate change impacts on maritime borders.

“The rising sea levels will not occur overnight. There must be global solutions, because all countries stand to suffer from climate change impacts,” he said.