1.
Bird's Head Plate
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The Birds Head Plate is a minor tectonic plate incorporating the Birds Head Peninsula at the western end of the island of New Guinea. Hillis & Müller consider it to be moving in unison with the Pacific Plate, bird considers it to be unconnected to the Pacific Plate. The plate is separating from the Australian Plate and the small Maoke Plate along a divergent boundary to the southeast, convergent boundaries exist along the north between the Birds Head and the Caroline Plate, the Philippine Sea Plate, and the Halmahera Plate to the northwest. A transform boundary exists between the Birds Head and the Molucca Sea Collision Zone to the southwest, another convergent boundary exists between the Birds Head and the Banda Sea Plate to the south
2.
Indonesia
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Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a unitary sovereign state and transcontinental country located mainly in Southeast Asia with some territories in Oceania. Situated between the Indian and Pacific oceans, it is the worlds largest island country, with more than seventeen thousand islands. At 1,904,569 square kilometres, Indonesia is the worlds 14th-largest country in terms of area and worlds 7th-largest country in terms of combined sea. It has an population of over 260 million people and is the worlds fourth most populous country. The worlds most populous island, Java, contains more than half of the countrys population, Indonesias republican form of government includes an elected legislature and president. Indonesia has 34 provinces, of which five have Special Administrative status and its capital and countrys most populous city is Jakarta, which is also the most populous city in Southeast Asia and the second in Asia. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, other neighbouring countries include Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, Palau, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support the second highest level of biodiversity. The country has abundant natural resources like oil and natural gas, tin, copper, agriculture mainly produces rice, palm oil, tea, coffee, cacao, medicinal plants, spices and rubber. Indonesias major trading partners are Japan, United States, China, the Indonesian archipelago has been an important region for trade since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with China and India. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Indonesia consists of hundreds of native ethnic and linguistic groups. The largest – and politically dominant – ethnic group are the Javanese, a shared identity has developed, defined by a national language, ethnic diversity, religious pluralism within a Muslim-majority population, and a history of colonialism and rebellion against it. Indonesias national motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, articulates the diversity that shapes the country, Indonesias economy is the worlds 16th largest by nominal GDP and the 8th largest by GDP at PPP, the largest in Southeast Asia, and is considered an emerging market and newly industrialised country. Indonesia has been a member of the United Nations since 1950, Indonesia is a member of the G20 major economies and World Trade Organization. The name Indonesia derives from the Greek name of the Indós, the name dates to the 18th century, far predating the formation of independent Indonesia. In 1850, George Windsor Earl, an English ethnologist, proposed the terms Indunesians—and, his preference, in the same publication, one of his students, James Richardson Logan, used Indonesia as a synonym for Indian Archipelago. However, Dutch academics writing in East Indies publications were reluctant to use Indonesia, they preferred Malay Archipelago, the Netherlands East Indies, popularly Indië, the East, and Insulinde
3.
West Papua (province)
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West Papua is a province of Indonesia. It covers the two peninsulas of the island of New Guinea. Its capital is Manokwari, although the largest city is Sorong, and the 2010 census recorded a population of 760,855, the latest official estimate is 877,437. West Papua Province was created from the portion of Papua in February 2003, initially under the name of West Irian Jaya. The province covers the Birds Head and Bomberai peninsulas and the islands of Raja Ampat. With a population of 877,437 in 2014, it is the least populous province of Indonesia except for the newly created province of North Kalimantan, even after Indonesias independence in 1945, Papua and Irian Jaya were retained by the Dutch for various reasons. However, Indonesia claimed all of the territory of the former Dutch East Indies, including the Dutch New Guinea holdings and this vote was referred to as the Act of Free Choice. But, the vote was in fact conducted by consensus decision-making, or consensus of elders and this body was coerced into unanimously voting to remain part of Indonesia, the territory was named as the province of Irian Jaya, later Papua. The result of the vote was rejected by Papuan nationalists. The independence movement for West Papua has continued, primarily through peaceful protest and international pressure, West Papua was created from the western portion of Papua province in February 2003, initially under the name of Irian Jaya Barat, it was later renamed Papua Barat on 7 February 2007. In November 2004, an Indonesian court agreed that the split violated Papuas autonomy laws, however, the court ruled that because the new province had already been created, it should remain separate from Papua. The ruling also prohibited the creation of another proposed province, Central Irian Jaya, the split is in line with the general trend of provincial splits that is occurring in all parts of Indonesia in the post-Suharto era. The province changed its name to West Papua on 7 February 2007, in 2000 the areas now forming West Papua province consisted of three regencies – Manokwari, Sorong and Fakfak. By 2010 the province was divided into ten regencies and one autonomous city. Two new regencies have since created, all the existing regencies and city are listed below with their populations at the 2010 Census. * The areas and 2014 population of Arfak Mountains and South Manokwari Regencies are included in the figures for Manokwari Regency, the 2010 Census figures quoted above for all four of these regencies relate to their area as established in 2010. On 25 October 2013 the Indonesian House of Representatives began reviewing draft laws on the establishment of 57 prospective regencies/cities, poisoned Arrows, An investigative journey through the forbidden lands of West Papua
4.
Manokwari
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Manokwari is a city in Indonesia. It is the largest city and, since 2003, the capital of the province of West Papua, the city has many resorts and is a major tourist area. It is one of the seats of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manokwari–Sorong and it is also the administrative seat of Manokwari Regency. The city is included of the Manokwari-Northeastern Birds Head Peninsula MSA. It is the largest city in the metro area, the city is also a major port, financial center, and tourist area that is important to West Papua and Eastern Indonesia. On 12 April 1942, a Japanese convoy steamed into Dore Bay, the area was already well-known to the Japanese, as the area was the location of a cotton plantation developed by the government-sponsored Nan’yō Kōhatsu development company from the early 1930s. As the KNIL ground force had no chance of engaging the Japanese invasion force, it withdrew into the interior of Dutch New Guinea. At 4, 43am on 4 January 2009 a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck Manokwari, felt as far away as Australia, the 35 km deep earthquake killed four people, injured 19 more and 167,000 people were left without power. Local residents were evacuated to Manokwari Military Academy in order to shelter from possible tsunamis. Damage occurred to the Mutiara Hotel, the Naval hospital, Manokwari Regional Airport had significant damage, being closest to the epicenter, and all four deaths resulted there. The Indonesian government sent a team of seven doctors to Manokwari to assist with the injured, originally, the team was projected to be ten people, but due to the severe damage of the runway only seven were able to be transported in. This was not unlike the previous quakes on 10 October 2002 when another 7.6 magnitude quake shook the region, in 1996 similar quakes also halted progress in the local region but there is no record of the recorded magnitude. The tail of the aircraft broke off and came to rest in the creek off the end of Runway 35. All passengers survived, but 21 injured people were admitted to hospital, the flight originated in Sorong, West Papua. Manokwari is three meters above sea level on the coast of West Papua and its average temperature is 26.3 °C and its temperature fluctuation is only 1 °C. It receives 2,597 mm of rain per year, approximately 216 mm per month and it is located 52 minutes south of the equator and has an 86. 3% average humidity. The annual sunshine hours are 2127, an average of 5.8 hours of sunlight per day, to date, there are no recorded days of frost or snowfall in Manokwari. There are over twenty-four different tribal groups living in Manokwari, each tribe has its own unique language and culture
5.
Sausapor
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Sausapor is a small town and kecamatan in the Tambrauw Regency of West Papua, Indonesia. The town is located on the northern coast of the Birds Head Peninsula, according to the 1983 census, the kecamatan has a population of 3,325, and more recent figures reveal around 1000 people living in the main town of Sausapor. Sausapor is a breeding ground for sea turtles and bird habitat. Roman Catholicism spread to Sausapor during the Dutch colonial period when the villagers favoured a Catholic mission effectively governing them rather than a formal Dutch Protestant government, historically, it has been noted as a cloth producing centre. In preparation for Operation Typhoon, on June 17,1944, S-47, the reconnaissance force landed near Sausapor-Mar on June 23 where the party spent the week surveying the region. As a result of the ground and aerial reconnaissance the landing facilities was diverted to land 55 miles northeast of Sorong. On June 30,1944 Operation Typhoon landed at Sansapar, Mar, Middelburg Island, in charge of the Operation Typhoon ground forces was Major General Franklin C. Sibert, commanding general of the 6th Infantry Division, General Sibert was to command an organization designated the TYPHOON Task Force, which comprised the 6th Division, less the 20th Regimental Combat Team. All of the landings ultimately proved to be unopposed and it was not until August 16 that elements of the Japanese 35th Division were able to reach the area of the landings, by 31 August the 63d Infantry had killed 155 Japanese and taken 42 prisoners. The American regiment lost only 3 men killed and 4 wounded, the 1st Infantry, on the west flank, killed 197 Japanese and captured 154, while losing only 4 men wounded itself. The 6th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, during its series of far flung patrols, killed 42 Japanese, total battle casualties for the TYPHOON Task Force from 30 July through 31 August were 14 killed,35 wounded, and 9 injured. Japanese losses during the period were estimated to be 385 killed and 215 captured. Ships patrolled this area of the coastline throughout the long campaign. Operation Globetrotter ended on August 31 and General MacArthurs last point of landing on the way back to the Philippines was at Sausapor, Cape Opmarai Airfield is now a nearby, disused airfield. After American troops landed in Sausapor in 1944, an epidemic occurred. Subsequently, research was conducted on Sansapors rats and mites, using C-rations as rat bait, Sausapor is located on the Vogel Kop Peninsula on the northern coast of the Birds Head Peninsula of northwestern Papua. It is situated 15 miles west of Cape of Good Hope, the mouth of the Wewe River empties into the sea near Sausapor. While it was known as Dutch New Guinea, Sansapor, just south of the equator, was its most northern area, Sausapor has several zones which include rain forest, garden areas, beach, and forest margin
6.
Mount Arfak
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Mount Arfak is the highest point in the province of West Papua. It is located on north-east side of the Birds Head Peninsula and it is a popular hiking area and is the highest peak of the Arfak Mountains. From the summit, Manokwari can be seen, the summit of Mt. Arfak is temperate and dry with very hot, dry summer temperatures that average below 95 °F and mild, humid winter temperatures that average above 38 °F. During the winter months, the summit receives frost usually and sometimes can get to 33 °F every now. Sometimes snow can fall on the summit, but not every year, average rain amount per year is about 45 inches. The mountain is part of the Pegunungan Arfak Nature Reserve, a 683-square-kilometer protected area that protects parts of the Vogelkop Montane Rain Forests Ecoregion, the mountain is also the highest point in the Manokwari metropolitan area. List of Southeast Asian mountains List of Ultras of Malay Archipelago List of Ultras of Oceania WWF Bird Watching on Birds Head, accessed 20 May 2011 Arfak Mountains
7.
Arfak Mountains
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The Arfak Mountains is a mountain range found on the Birds Head Peninsula in the Province of West Papua, Indonesia. The term arfak came from the language of the coastal Biak people and this is due to how big the mountains are compared to other lowland areas found in this region. Located in the east and central regions of the Birds Head Peninsula, mount Arfak, at 2,955 m, can be viewed from the provincial capital, Manokwari, and is the highest point in West Papua and the Birds Head Peninsula. Since the Dutch colonial times, the range has been one of the most frequently explored and best known regions of West Papua for bird watching. Along with the Tamrau Mountains in the north, the two ranges have been divided by the grassy Kebar Valley, which is the heartland of many indigenous people, with a variety of backgrounds. Found near the town of Manokwari, the mountains are an important and threatened site of biodiversity, Arfak Mountains, Birding Hotspot of West Papua Accessed 5 March 2015 WWF Bird Watching on Birds Head, and the Threats to the Region Vogelkop Montane Rain Forests
8.
Time in Indonesia
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The Indonesian archipelago geographically stretches across four time zones from UTC+6 in Aceh to UTC+9 in Western Papua. The border between central and eastern time zones runs north from the tip of Timor to the eastern tip of Sulawesi. Daylight saving time is not currently observed in almost all of Indonesia due to its tropical location, the only unofficial exception of this is Muara Teweh and Maurainu, which unofficially uses Western Indonesian Daylight Time. All provinces in the island of Java including major cities such as, Bandung, Surabaya, Jakarta, Semarang, two provinces in Kalimantan island, West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan. Including major cities such as, Pontianak, Palangkaraya, and Sampit, Muara Teweh and Maurainu unofficially uses Western Indonesian Daylight Time, which has the same time as Central Indonesian Time. All provinces in the Lesser Sunda Islands including major cities such as, Denpasar, Mataram, three provinces in Kalimantan island, North Kalimantan, East Kalimantan and South Kalimantan, including major cities such as, Balikpapan, Banjarmasin, Samarinda, and Tarakan. IANA time zone identifier is Asia/Makassar Indonesia Eastern Standard Time is observed in, Maluku Islands including major cities such as, Ambon City, Ternate City. All provinces in West Papua including major cities such as, Jayapura, Biak, all provinces in Papua including all major islands in the province. IANA time zone identifier is Asia/Jayapura It observed since January 1,1988. Central and Southern Sumatra Time, was observed in Bengkulu, Palembang and Lampung, Java, Bali, and Borneo Time, was observed in Java, Bali, Madura and Kalimantan. Celebes Time, was observed in Sulawesi and Lesser Sunda Islands, moluccan Time, was observed in Ternate, Namlea, Ambon, Sofifi and Banda. West Irian Time was observed in West Irian and it observed during November 1,1932 to August 31,1944. Dutch New Guinea Time, was observed in West Irian during named Dutch New Guinea because Netherlands still hold West Irian. It observed from September 1,1944 to December 31,1963, Daylight saving time was observed in Jakarta from May 1,1948 to May 1,1950. Its UTC offset during daylight saving time is UTC+08,00. tab, asia/Jakarta Asia/Pontianak Asia/Makassar Asia/Jayapura ASEAN Common Time Time in Malaysia Time in the Philippines Time in Singapore UTC+8 Indonesian Standard Time
9.
Indonesian language
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Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. It is a register of Malay, an Austronesian language that has been used as a lingua franca in the multilingual Indonesian archipelago for centuries. Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world, of its large population, the majority speak Indonesian, making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. However, most formal education, and nearly all national mass media, governance, administration, judiciary, the Indonesian name for the language is Bahasa Indonesia or sometimes simplified as Bahasa. This term is occasionally found in English and other languages. Indonesian is a register of Riau Malay, which despite its common name is not the Malay dialect native to Riau. Originally spoken in Northeast Sumatra, Malay has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for half a millennium and it might be attributed to its ancestor, the Old Malay language. The Kedukan Bukit Inscription is the oldest surviving specimen of Old Malay, trade contacts carried on by various ethnic peoples at the time were the main vehicle for spreading the Old Malay language, which was the main communications medium among the traders. Ultimately, the Old Malay language became a lingua franca and was spoken widely by most people in the archipelago, Indonesian is essentially the same language as the official Malaysian, Singaporean and Brunei standards of Malay. However, it does differ from Malaysian in several respects, with differences in pronunciation and these differences are due mainly to the Dutch and Javanese influences on Indonesian. Indonesian was also influenced by the Melayu pasar, which was the lingua franca of the archipelago in colonial times, and thus indirectly by other spoken languages of the islands. Malaysian Malay claims to be closer to the classical Malay of earlier centuries, even though modern Malaysian has been influenced, in lexicon as well as in syntax. The question of whether High Malay or Low Malay was the parent of the Indonesian language is still in debate. Some linguists have argued that it was the more common Low Malay that formed the base of the Indonesian language, however, the language had never been dominant among the population of the Indonesian archipelago as it was limited to mercantile activity. The VOC adopted the Malay language as the language of their trading outpost in the east. Following the bankruptcy of the VOC the Dutch crown took control of the colony in 1799 and it was then that education in. Even then, Dutch administrators were reluctant to promote the use of Dutch compared to other colonial regimes. Dutch thus remained the language of a elite, in 1940
10.
Dutch language
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It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after English and German. Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English and is said to be roughly in between them, Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic and incorporates more Romance loans than German but far fewer than English. In both Belgium and the Netherlands, the official name for Dutch is Nederlands, and its dialects have their own names, e. g. Hollands, West-Vlaams. The use of the word Vlaams to describe Standard Dutch for the variations prevalent in Flanders and used there, however, is common in the Netherlands, the Dutch language has been known under a variety of names. It derived from the Old Germanic word theudisk, one of the first names used for the non-Romance languages of Western Europe. It literarily means the language of the people, that is. The term was used as opposed to Latin, the language of writing. In the first text in which it is found, dating from 784, later, theudisca appeared also in the Oaths of Strasbourg to refer to the Germanic portion of the oath. This led inevitably to confusion since similar terms referred to different languages, owing to Dutch commercial and colonial rivalry in the 16th and 17th centuries, the English term came to refer exclusively to the Dutch. A notable exception is Pennsylvania Dutch, which is a West Central German variety called Deitsch by its speakers, Jersey Dutch, on the other hand, as spoken until the 1950s in New Jersey, is a Dutch-based creole. In Dutch itself, Diets went out of common use - although Platdiets is still used for the transitional Limburgish-Ripuarian Low Dietsch dialects in northeast Belgium, Nederlands, the official Dutch word for Dutch, did not become firmly established until the 19th century. This designation had been in use as far back as the end of the 15th century, one of them was it reflected a distinction with Hoogduits, High Dutch, meaning the language spoken in Germany. The Hoog was later dropped, and thus, Duits narrowed down in meaning to refer to the German language. g, in English, too, Netherlandic is regarded as a more accurate term for the Dutch language, but is hardly ever used. Old Dutch branched off more or less around the same time Old English, Old High German, Old Frisian and Old Saxon did. During that period, it forced Old Frisian back from the western coast to the north of the Low Countries, on the other hand, Dutch has been replaced in adjacent lands in nowadays France and Germany. The division in Old, Middle and Modern Dutch is mostly conventional, one of the few moments linguists can detect somewhat of a revolution is when the Dutch standard language emerged and quickly established itself. This is assumed to have taken place in approximately the mid-first millennium BCE in the pre-Roman Northern European Iron Age, the Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups, East, West, and North Germanic. They remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration Period, Dutch is part of the West Germanic group, which also includes English, Scots, Frisian, Low German and High German
11.
New Guinea
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New Guinea is a large Island in the South West Pacific region. It is the worlds second-largest island, after Greenland, covering an area of 785,753 km2. The island is divided between two countries, Papua New Guinea to the east, and Indonesia to the west, the island has been known by various names. The name Papua was used to refer to parts of the island before contact with the West and its etymology is unclear, one theory states that it is from Tidore, the language used by the Sultanate of Tidore, which controlled parts of the islands coastal region. The name came from papo and ua, which means not united or, ploeg reports that the word papua is often said to derive from the Malay word papua or pua-pua, meaning frizzly-haired, referring to the highly curly hair of the inhabitants of these areas. When the Portuguese and Spanish explorers arrived in the island via the Spice Islands, when the Dutch colonized it as part of Netherlands East Indies, they called it Nieuw Guinea. The name Irian was used in the Indonesian language to refer the island and Indonesian province, the name was promoted in 1945 by Marcus Kaisiepo, brother of the future governor Frans Kaisiepo. It is taken from the Biak language of Biak Island, and means to rise and this name of Irian is the name used in the Biak language and other languages such as Serui, Merauke and Waropen. The name was used until 2001, when the name Papua was again used for the island, the name Irian, which was originally favored by natives, is now considered to be a name imposed by the authority of Jakarta. New Guinea is an island to the north of Australia, and it is isolated by the Arafura Sea to the west and the Torres Strait and Coral Sea to the east. A spine of east–west mountains, the New Guinea Highlands, dominates the geography of New Guinea, stretching over 1,600 km from the head to the tail of the island. The western half of the island of New Guinea contains the highest mountains in Oceania, rising up to 4,884 m high, the tree line is around 4,000 m elevation and the tallest peaks contain permanent equatorial glaciers—which have been retreating since at least 1936. Various other smaller mountain ranges occur both north and west of the central ranges, except in high elevations, most areas possess a warm humid climate throughout the year, with some seasonal variation associated with the northeast monsoon season. At 4,884 metres, Puncak Jaya makes New Guinea the worlds fourth highest landmass, Puncak Mandala, located in Papua, is the second highest peak on the island at 4,760 metres. Puncak Trikora, also in Papua, is 4,750 metres, mount Wilhelm is the highest peak on the PNG side of the border at 4,509 metres. Its granite peak is the highest point of the Bismarck Range, mount Giluwe 4,368 metres is the second highest summit in PNG. It is also the highest volcanic peak in Oceania, another major habitat feature is the vast southern and northern lowlands. Stretching for hundreds of kilometres, these include lowland rainforests, extensive wetlands, savanna grasslands, the southern lowlands are the site of Lorentz National Park, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site
12.
Cenderawasih Bay
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Cenderawasih Bay, also Teluk Sarera, formerly Geelvink Bay is a large bay in northern Province of Papua and West Papua, New Guinea, Indonesia, at 2. 5°S135. 3°E / -2.5,135.3. The Dutch name comes from a Dutch ship and family called Geelvinck, the western part of the bay was declared a marine national park in 2002. Teluk Cenderawasih National Park is located in the Teluk Cenderawasih, the Mapia Islands lie to the north, and south of Palau. Birds Head Peninsula borders the northwest part of the Bay
13.
Waigeo
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Waigeo is an island in West Papua province of eastern Indonesia. The island is known as Amberi, or Waigiu. It is the largest of the four islands in the Raja Ampat Islands archipelago. The Dampier Strait separates it from Batanta, and the Bougainville Strait from the Kawe Islands to its north-west, the inner sea that nearly cleaves the island in two is the Majoli Gulf. The area of the island is 3,155 square kilometres, from west to east the island measures approximately 110 km, north-south about 50 kilometres. The town of Waisai in the west of the island is the capital of the Raja Ampat regency, languages spoken on Waigeo include Papuan Malay, Biak, Maya, and Ambel. Jorge de Menezes, a Portuguese explorer, landed on Waigeo Island in 1526-27, alfred Russel Wallace spent some time on the island and studied the flora and fauna during the late 1850s while on his scientific exploration trip. Since 1997, the island has been the site of a substantial pearl farming operation owned by the Australian company Atlas Pacific
14.
Raja Ampat Islands
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The Raja Ampat archipelago is the part of Coral Triangle which contains the richest marine biodiversity on earth. Raja Ampat Regency is a new regency which separated from Sorong Regency in 2004, the population of the Regency was recently put at 49,048. It encompasses more than 40,000 km² of land and sea, which also contains Cenderawasih Bay and it is a part of the newly named West Papua province of Indonesia which was formerly Irian Jaya. Some of the islands are the most northern pieces of land in the Australian continent, Raja Ampat is considered the global epicenter of tropical marine bio-diversity and is referred to as The Crown Jewel of the Birds Head Seascape, which also includes Cenderawasih Bay and Triton Bay. The name of Raja Ampat comes from mythology that tells about a woman who finds seven eggs. Four of the seven eggs hatch and become kings that occupy four of Raja Ampat biggest islands whilst the three become a ghost, a woman, and a stone. History shows that Raja Ampat was once a part of Sultanate of Tidore, yet, after the Dutch invaded Maluku, it was shortly claimed by the Netherlands. The English explorer William Dampier gave his name to Dampier Strait, to the east, there is a strait that separates Batanta from Salawati. In 1759 Captain William Wilson sailing in the East Indiaman Pitt navigated these waters and named one strait Pitt strait, after his vessel, the main occupation for people around this area is fishing since the area is dominated by the sea. They live in a colony of tribes that spreads around the area. Although traditional culture still exists, they are very welcoming to visitors. Raja Ampat people are more like Ambonese than Papuan people and now some of them are Muslim, the oceanic natural resources around Raja Ampat give it significant potential as a tourist area. Many sources place Raja Ampat as one of their top ten most popular places for diving whilst it retains the number one ranking in terms of underwater biodiversity. According to Conservation International, marine surveys suggest that the marine diversity in the Raja Ampat area is the highest recorded on Earth. Diversity is considerably greater than any other area sampled in the Coral Triangle composed of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. The Coral Triangle is the heart of the coral reef biodiversity. The Raja Ampat islands are remote and relatively undisturbed by humans, the high marine diversity in Raja Ampat is strongly influenced by its position between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, as coral and fish larvae are more easily shared between the two oceans. Raja Ampats coral diversity, resilience, and role as a source for larval dispersal make it a priority for marine protection
15.
Tamrau Mountains
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The Tamrau Mountains, also known as the Tambrauw Mountains or the Tamarau Mountains, is a mountain range located in the north central region of the Birds Head Peninsula in the province of West Papua. It is made up of an isolated and lesser continuous mountain chain compared to the Arfak Mountains, the Tamrau and Arfak Mountains are both divided by the grassy Kebar Valley, which is the heartland of many indigenous people, with a variety of backgrounds. The Tamrau Mountains have been very scantily surveyed for any purpose till this day, the mountains are an important and threatened site of biodiversity, part of the Vogelkop Montane Rain Forests Ecoregion. WWF Bird Watching on Birds Head, and the Threats to the Region Vogelkop Montane Rain Forests, Accessed 5 March 2015 Arfak Mountains, Birding Hotspot of West Papua Accessed 5 March 2015
16.
Kebar Valley
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The Kebar Valley is a large pleistocene/holocene intermontane valley found in the north central region of the Birds Head Peninsula in the province of West Papua. The valley is enclosed by the fault-bounded Tamrau Mountains at an area of 2,703 square kilometres and its depth averages from 500 to 600 metres in the lower sections to around 900 to 1,400 metres in the upper sections of the valley. The valley is located 130 kilometres west of Manokwari and 190 kilometres east of Sorong, the nearest major village to the valley is Saukorem. A notable path runs through the Kebar Valley connecting Saukorem to the settlement of Andai and this has created many villages throughout the area, leading to a growing rice production in the central and eastern regions of the valley. From north to south, the Kebar Valley ranges from 16 to 30 kilometres wide, the valley floor is leveled and gently tilted to three degrees, providing a division between the Arfak Mountains in the south, and the Tamrau Mountains in the north. Along its margins are small alluvial cones, and terrace remnants of high level lake or alluvial deposits that rest along the north side of the valley. The major drainage area is the Kasi River, however, the Api River and Apriri River are two other rivers that cross this valley and supply water to the southeast lowland swamp areas. At the western end of the valley, quaternary basin sediments are cut by the Kasi River, throughout the valley are many natural pastures, with the largest one located in the central region and has an area of 218 square kilometres. Primary fauna found in the valley is the Rusa Deer, which are found close to the flat regions of the central and eastern parts of the valley, encompassing the grassland. However, it is common to find the deer across the grassland and this hilly grassland area can be described as the pathway of water from highland areas to the flatland areas flowing to the east through the gullies. Encompassing the Vogelkop Montane Rain Forests Ecoregion, the Kebar Valley has a savanna climate, characterized mostly by its tall grass fields. The weather in the valley is subject to influence of the northwest monsoon from November to March. Rainfall is high throughout the Kebar Valley, with an average up to 3,500 millimetres annually, relative humidity is also uniformly high in the valley, ranging from 80 to 100 percent. Morning clouds and ground fog may hamper aircraft operations in regions surrounding the valley during dry season, the Kebar Valley is home to the Karoon, Abun, Dore and the Wabia people who made their main home in the village of Saukorem. The growing populations in the valley resulted from Christian missionaries that moved through this region of the Birds Head Peninsula, the people of the valley, Saukorem and this region of the Birds Head Peninsula are said to produce wooden figures which are known as Korwar figures. They are often made with glass beads for eyes and a made of bark-cloth and with the skulls of deceased family members. The locals are known for producing bark-cloth. Grazing habitat of Rusa Deer in the Kebar Valley, Accessed 5 March 2015 WWF Bird Watching on Birds Head, and the Threats to the Region Vogelkop Montane Rain Forests
17.
Montane ecosystems
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Montane ecosystems refers to any ecosystem found in mountains. These ecosystems are affected by climate, which gets colder as elevation increases. They are stratified according to elevation, dense forests are common at moderate elevations. However, as the elevation increases, the climate becomes harsher, as elevation increases, the climate becomes cooler, due to a decrease in the greenhouse effect. The characteristic flora and fauna in the mountains tend to depend on elevation. This dependency causes life zones to form, bands of similar ecosystems at similar altitude, one of the typical life zones on mountains is the montane forest, at moderate elevations, the rainfall and temperate climate encourages dense forests to grow. Holdridge defines the climate of montane forest as having a biotemperature of between 6 and 12 °C, where biotemperature is the mean temperature considering temperatures below 0 °C to be 0 °C. Above the elevation of the montane forest, the trees thin out in the zone, become twisted krummholz. Therefore, Montane forests often contain trees with twisted trunks and this phenomenon is observed due to the increase in the wind strength with the elevation. The elevation where trees fail to grow is called the tree line. The biotemperature of the zone is between 3 and 6 °C. Above the tree line the ecosystem is called the zone or alpine tundra, dominated by grasses. The biotemperature of the zone is between 1.5 and 3 °C. Many different plant species live in the environment, including perennial grasses, sedges, forbs, cushion plants, mosses. Alpine plants must adapt to the conditions of the alpine environment, which include low temperatures, dryness, ultraviolet radiation. Alpine plants display adaptations such as structures, waxy surfaces. Because of the characteristics of these zones, the World Wildlife Fund groups a set of related ecoregions into the montane grassland and shrubland biome. Climates with biotemperatures below 1.5 °C tend to consist purely of rock, Montane forests occur between the submontane zone and the subalpine zone. The elevation at which one habitat changes to another varies across the globe, the upper limit of montane forests, the forest line or timberline, is often marked by a change to hardier species that occur in less dense stands
18.
King bird-of-paradise
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The king bird-of-paradise is a passerine bird of the Paradisaeidae family. The king bird-of-paradise is distributed throughout forests of New Guinea. The diet consists mainly of fruits and arthropods, widespread and a common species throughout their large habitat range, the king bird-of-paradise is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES, the first captive breeding of this species was by Dr. Sten Bergman of Sweden in 1958. He was awarded a medal by the Foreign Bird League to mark this achievement. This so-called living gem is the smallest and most vividly colored among birds-of-paradise, the king bird-of-paradise is small, approximately 16 cm long. The male is crimson and white with bright blue feet and green-tipped fan-like plumes on his shoulder, the two elongated tail wires are decorated with emerald green disk feathers on its tip. The unadorned female is a bird with barring below
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Illegal logging
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Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. Illegality may also occur during transport, such as processing and export, fraudulent declaration to customs, the avoidance of taxes and other charges. Illegal logging is a problem, causing enormous damage to forests, local communities. Therefore, a basis for normative acts against timber imports or other products manufactured out of illegal wood is missing. Scientific methods to pinpoint the origin of timber are currently under development. Possible actions to restrict imports cannot meet with WTO regulations of non-discrimination and they must instead be arranged in bilateral agreements. TRAFFIC, the wildlife monitoring network, strives to monitor the illegal trade of timber and provide expertise in policy. It is estimated that illegal logging on public land alone causes losses in assets, available figures and estimates must be treated with caution. On the other hand, environmental NGOs publish alarming figures to raise awareness, however, for many countries, NGOs are the only source of information apart from state institutions, which probably clearly underestimate the true figures. For example, the Republic of Estonia calculated a rate of 1% illegally harvested timber in 2003, in Latvia, the situation is comparable, anecdotal evidence points towards 25% of logging being illegal. Illegal logging contributes to deforestation and by extension global warming, causes loss of biodiversity, Illegal logging has serious economic and social implications for the poor and disadvantaged with millions of dollars worth of timber revenue being lost each year. This unfair competition affects those European companies, especially the small and medium-sized companies that are behaving responsibly, a joint UK-Indonesian study of the timber industry in Indonesia in 1998 suggested that about 40% of throughput was illegal, with a value in excess of $365 million. More recent estimates, comparing legal harvesting against known domestic consumption plus exports, malaysia is the key transit country for illegal wood products from Indonesia. In Brazil, 80% of logging in the Amazon violates government controls, at the core of illegal logging is widespread corruption. Often referred to as ‘green gold’, mahogany can fetch over US$1,600 m-3, Illegal mahogany facilitates the illegal logging of other species, and widespread exploitation of the Brazilian Amazon. Recent Greenpeace investigations in the Brazilian state of Pará reveal just how deeply rooted the problem remains, no reliable legal chain of custody exists for mahogany, and the key players in its trade are ruthless. The World Bank estimates that 80% of logging operations are illegal in Bolivia and 42% in Colombia,10 while in Peru, WWF estimates that illegal logging in Russia is at least 20%, reaching up to 50% in its far eastern regions. Between 50% and 90% of logging from the key countries in these regions is being carried out by organised criminal entities, the East Asia Forest Law Enforcement and Governance Ministerial Conference took place in Bali in September 2001
20.
Teluk Cenderawasih National Park
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Teluk Cenderawasih National Park is the largest marine national park of Indonesia, located in Cenderawasih Bay, south-east of Birds Head Peninsula. It includes the islands of Mioswaar, Nusrowi, Roon, Rumberpon, the park protects a rich marine ecosystem, with over 150 recorded coral species, for which it is considered a potential World Heritage Site. Extending over 14,535 km², the park includes coastal and mangrove ecosystems, coral reefs, island tropical forest ecosystems. Some 46 species of plant have been recorded on the islands, dominated by Bruguiera and Avicennia species, Nypa fruticans, Metroxylon sagu, Casuarina equisetifolia, the coral reef ecosystem forms part of the Coral Triangle region. In the park,150 species of coral have been recorded, consisting of 15 families, among these are colonies of blue coral, black coral, Leptoseris species, Mycedium elephantotus, and Alcyonacea or soft corals. The percentage of live coral coverage varies from between 30-40% to 64-65%, over 200 fish species inhabit the park, among them butterflyfish, damselfish, parrotfish, rabbitfish, clownfish and sharks. Species of mollusc include cowry, Strombidae, Lambis species, Charonia tritonis, four species of turtle are common in the park, the hawksbill turtle, green turtle, Olive Ridley turtle, and leatherback turtle. Mammals include dugong, blue whale and dolphins, about 14,000 people live in 72 villages within the park. Several Austronesian languages are spoken in the area, which part of the Cenderawasih languages branch and include, Wandamen, Dusner, Meoswar, Roon. Most of the park is part of Teluk Wondama Regency of West Papua province, in 1990, the area was designated as Teluk Cendrawasih Marine Nature Reserve. The National Park was designated in 1993 and declared in 2002, the park is managed by Balai Taman Nasional with a personnel of 106
21.
Subsistence agriculture
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Subsistence agriculture is self-sufficiency farming in which the farmers focus on growing enough food to feed themselves and their families. The output is mostly for local requirements with little or no surplus trade, the typical subsistence farm has a range of crops and animals needed by the family to feed and clothe themselves during the year. Planting decisions are made principally with an eye toward what the family will need during the coming year, tony Waters writes, Subsistence peasants are people who grow what they eat, build their own houses, and live without regularly making purchases in the marketplace. Subsistence agriculture also emerged independently in Mexico where it was based on cultivation. Subsistence agriculture was the dominant mode of production in the world until recently, Subsistence horticulture may have developed independently in South East Asia and Papua New Guinea. Subsistence farming continues today in parts of rural Africa, and parts of Asia. Many of the items, as well as occasional services from physicians, veterinarians, blacksmiths. In Central and Eastern Europe subsistence and semi-subsistence agriculture reappeared within the economy since about 1990. In this type of agriculture, a patch of forest land is cleared by a combination of felling and burning, and crops are grown. After 2-3 years the fertility of the soil begins to decline, the land is abandoned, while the land is left fallow the forest regrows in the cleared area and soil fertility and biomass is restored. After a decade or more, the farmer may return to the first piece of land, shifting cultivation is called Dredd in India, Ladang in Indonesia and Milpa in Central America and Mexico. However, such farmers often recognize the value of such compost and they also may irrigate part of such fields if they are near a source of water. In some areas of tropical Africa, at least, such smaller fields may be ones in which crops are grown on raised beds, thus farmers practicing slash and burn agriculture are often much more sophisticated agriculturalists than the term slash and burn subsistence farmers suggest. In this type of farming people migrate along with their animals from one place to another in search of fodder for their animals, generally they rear cattle, sheep, goats, camels and/or yaks for milk, skin, meat and wool. This way of life is common in parts of central and western Asia, India, east and south-west Africa, examples are the nomadic Bhotiyas and Gujjars of the Himalayas. In Intensive subsistence agriculture, the farmer cultivates a small plot of land using simple tools, climate, with large number of days with sunshine and fertile soils permits growing of more than one crop annually on the same plot. Farmers use their land holdings to produce enough, for their local consumption. It results in more food being produced per acre compared to other subsistence patterns
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Shifting cultivation
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The period of cultivation is usually terminated when the soil shows signs of exhaustion or, more commonly, when the field is overrun by weeds. The length of time that a field is cultivated is usually shorter than the period over which the land is allowed to regenerate by lying fallow and this technique is often used in LEDCs or LICs. In some areas, cultivators use a practice of slash-and-burn as one element of their farming cycle, others employ land clearing without any burning, and some cultivators are purely migratory and do not use any cyclical method on a given plot. Sometimes no slashing at all is needed where regrowth is purely of grasses, in shifting agriculture, after two or three years of producing vegetable and grain crops on cleared land, the migrants abandon it for another plot. Trees, bushes and forests are cleared by slashing, and the vegetation is burnt. The ashes add potash to the soil, then the seeds are sown after the rains. Over time, fields are cultivated for a short time. Eventually a previously cultivated field will be cleared of the natural vegetation, fields in established and stable shifting cultivation systems are cultivated and fallowed cyclically. This type of farming is called jhumming in India. It is common for fruit and nut trees to be planted in fields to the extent that parts of some fallows are in fact orchards. Soil-enhancing shrub or tree species may be planted or protected from slashing or burning in fallows, many of these species have been shown to fix nitrogen. Fallows commonly contain plants that attract birds and animals and are important for hunting, but perhaps most importantly, tree fallows protect soil against physical erosion and draw nutrients to the surface from deep in the soil profile. The relationship between the time the land is cultivated and the time it is fallowed are critical to the stability of shifting cultivation systems and these parameters determine whether or not the shifting cultivation system as a whole suffers a net loss of nutrients over time. A system in there is a net loss of nutrients with each cycle will eventually lead to a degradation of resources unless actions are taken to arrest the losses. In some cases soil can be exhausted in less than a decade. The secondary forests created by shifting cultivation are commonly richer in plant and animal resources useful to humans than primary forests, shifting cultivators view the forest as an agricultural landscape of fields at various stages in a regular cycle. People unused to living in forests cannot see the fields for the trees, shifting agriculture is none of these things. Stable shifting cultivation systems are variable, closely adapted to micro-environments and are carefully managed by farmers during both the cropping and fallow stages. Shifting cultivators may possess a highly developed knowledge and understanding of their environments and of the crops
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Copra
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Copra is the dried meat, or dried kernel, of the coconut used to extract coconut oil. The earliest evidence of the extracting and use of oil from copra is in early Tamil literature from the 1st century AD. The word originated from the Malayalam word koppra, Coconut oil is extracted from it and this has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake, which is used as feed for livestock. Copra has traditionally been grated and ground then boiled in water to extract coconut oil and it was used by Pacific island cultures and became a valuable commercial product for merchants in the South Seas and South Asia in the 1860s. This 19th-century copra trading inspired Robert Louis Stevensons 1893 novella The Beach of Falesá, nowadays, the process of coconut oil extraction is performed by crushing copra to produce coconut oil, the by-product is known as copra cake or copra meal. Once the oil is extracted, the remaining cake is 18–25% protein. Instead it is fed to ruminants. The production of copra – removing the shell, breaking it up, Copra can be made by smoke drying, sun drying, or kiln drying. Sun drying requires little more than racks and sufficient sunlight, halved nuts are drained of water, and left with the meat facing the sky, they can be washed to remove mold-creating contaminants. After two days the meat can be removed from the shell with ease, and the process is complete after three to five more days. This process can also be reversed, partially drying the copra in the kiln, in India, small but whole coconuts can be dried over the course of eight months to a year, and the meat inside removed and sold as a whole ball. Meat prepared in this fashion is sweet, soft, oily and is cream-coloured instead of being white, Coconut meat can be dried using direct heat and smoke from a fire, using simple racks to suspend the coconut over the fire. The smoke residue can help preserve the meat but the process overall suffers from unpredictable results. While there are large plantations with integrated operations, copra remains primarily a smallholder crop. The major producing country is the Philippines and it is also a major exporter. Copra production begins on coconut plantations, Coconut trees are generally spaced 9 m apart, allowing a density of 100–160 coconut trees per hectare. A standard tree bears around 50–80 nuts a year, and average earnings in Vanuatu were US$0.20 per kg —so a farmer could earn approximately US$120 to US$320 yearly for each planted hectare
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Rice
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Rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima. As a cereal grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a part of the worlds human population. It is the agricultural commodity with the third-highest worldwide production, after sugarcane and maize, wild rice, from which the crop was developed, may have its native range in Australia. Chinese legends attribute the domestication of rice to Shennong, the emperor of China. Genetic evidence has shown that rice originates from a single domestication 8, previously, archaeological evidence had suggested that rice was domesticated in the Yangtze River valley region in China. From East Asia, rice was spread to Southeast and South Asia, Rice was introduced to Europe through Western Asia, and to the Americas through European colonization. There are many varieties of rice and culinary preferences tend to vary regionally, in some areas such as the Far East or Spain, there is a preference for softer and stickier varieties. Rice, a monocot, is grown as an annual plant, although in tropical areas it can survive as a perennial. The rice plant can grow to 1–1.8 m tall, occasionally more depending on the variety and it has long, slender leaves 50–100 cm long and 2–2.5 cm broad. The small wind-pollinated flowers are produced in a branched arching to pendulous inflorescence 30–50 cm long, the edible seed is a grain 5–12 mm long and 2–3 mm thick. Rice cultivation is well-suited to countries and regions with low costs and high rainfall, as it is labor-intensive to cultivate. However, rice can be grown practically anywhere, even on a hill or mountain area with the use of water-controlling terrace systems. Although its parent species are native to Asia and certain parts of Africa, centuries of trade, the traditional method for cultivating rice is flooding the fields while, or after, setting the young seedlings. The name wild rice is used for species of the genera Zizania and Porteresia. The Greek word is the source of all European words, the origin of the Greek word is unclear. It is sometimes held to be from the Tamil word அரிசி, however, Krishnamurti disagrees with the notion that Old Tamil arici is the source of the Greek term, and proposes that it was borrowed from descendants of Proto-Dravidian *wariñci instead. The varieties of rice are typically classified as long-, medium-, the grains of long-grain rice tend to remain intact after cooking, medium-grain rice becomes more sticky. Medium-grain rice is used for dishes, for risotto in Italy
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Maize
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Maize, also known as corn, is a large grain plant first domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The six major types of corn are dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, popcorn, flour corn, the leafy stalk of the plant produces separate pollen and ovuliferous inflorescences or ears, which are fruits, yielding kernels or seeds. Maize kernels are used in cooking as a starch. Most historians believe maize was domesticated in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico, recent research modified this view somewhat, scholars now indicate the adjacent Balsas River Valley of south-central Mexico as the center of domestication. The Olmec and Mayans cultivated maize in numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica, cooked and its believed that beginning about 2500 BC, the crop spread through much of the Americas. The region developed a network based on surplus and varieties of maize crops. Nevertheless, recent data indicates that the spread of maize took place even earlier, according to Piperno, A large corpus of data indicates that it was dispersed into lower Central America by 7600 BP and had moved into the inter-Andean valleys of Colombia between 7000 and 6000 BP. Since then, even earlier dates have been published, the study also demonstrated that the oldest surviving maize types are those of the Mexican highlands. Later, maize spread from this region over the Americas along two major paths and this is consistent with a model based on the archaeological record suggesting that maize diversified in the highlands of Mexico before spreading to the lowlands. Before they were domesticated, maize plants only grew small,25 millimetres long corn cobs, Maize is the most widely grown grain crop throughout the Americas, with 361 million metric tons grown in the United States in 2014. Approximately 40% of the crop—130 million tons—is used for corn ethanol, genetically modified maize made up 85% of the maize planted in the United States in 2009. After the arrival of Europeans in 1492, Spanish settlers consumed maize and explorers and traders carried it back to Europe, Spanish settlers far preferred wheat bread to maize, cassava, or potatoes. Maize flour could not be substituted for wheat for bread, since in Christian belief only wheat could undergo transubstantiation. At another level, Spaniards worried that by eating indigenous foods, which they did not consider nutritious, that not only would they weaken, despite these worries, Spaniards did consume maize and archeological evidence from Florida sites indicate they cultivated it as well. Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates and it was cultivated in Spain just a few decades after Columbuss voyages and then spread to Italy, West Africa and elsewhere. The word maize derives from the Spanish form of the indigenous Taíno word for the plant and it is known by other names around the world. The word corn outside North America, Australia, and New Zealand refers to any cereal crop, in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, corn primarily means maize, this usage started as a shortening of Indian corn. Indian corn primarily means maize, but can more specifically to multicolored flint corn used for decoration
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Peanut
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The peanut, also known as the groundnut and the goober and taxonomically classified as Arachis hypogaea, is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, being important to small and large commercial producers. It is classified as both a grain legume and, because of its oil content, an oil crop. World annual production of shelled peanuts was 42 million tonnes in 2014, atypically among crop plants, peanut pods develop underground rather than aboveground. It is this characteristic that the botanist Linnaeus used to assign the specific name hypogaea, as a legume, the peanut belongs to the botanical family Fabaceae, this is also known as Leguminosae, and commonly known as the bean, or pea, family. Like most other legumes, peanuts harbor symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria in root nodules and this capacity to fix nitrogen means peanuts require less nitrogen-containing fertilizer and improve soil fertility, making them valuable in crop rotations. Peanuts are similar in taste and nutritional profile to tree nuts such as walnuts and almonds, the botanical definition of a nut is a fruit whose ovary wall becomes very hard at maturity. Using this criterion, the peanut is not a true nut, however, for culinary purposes and in common English language usage, peanuts are usually referred to as nuts. Cultivated peanut arose from a hybrid between two species of peanut, thought to be A. duranensis and A. ipaensis. The initial hybrid would have been sterile, but spontaneous chromosome doubling restored its fertility, the process of domestication through artificial selection made A. hypogaea dramatically different from its wild relatives. The domesticated plants are bushier and more compact, and have a different pod structure, the initial domestication may have taken place in northwestern Argentina, or in southeastern Bolivia, where the peanut landraces with the most wild-like features are grown today. From this primary center of origin, cultivation spread and formed secondary and tertiary centers of diversity in Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay, over time, thousands of peanut landraces evolved, these are classified into six botanical varieties and two subspecies. Subspecies A. h. fastigiata types are more upright in their habit and have shorter crop cycles. Subspecies A. h. hypogaea types spread more on the ground and have longer crop cycles, the oldest known archeological remains of pods have been dated at about 7,600 years old. These may be pods from a species that was in cultivation. They were found in Peru, where dry conditions are favorable to the preservation of organic material. Almost certainly, peanut cultivation antedated this at the center of origin where the climate is moister, many pre-Columbian cultures, such as the Moche, depicted peanuts in their art. Cultivation was well established in Mesoamerica before the Spanish arrived, there, the conquistadors found the tlalcacahuatl being offered for sale in the marketplace of Tenochtitlan
27.
East Bird's Head languages
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The East Birds Head languages form a language family of three languages in the Birds Head Peninsula of western New Guinea, spoken by only 20,000 people in all. Stephen Wurm identifies the subdivisions of his Papuan classification as families, stocks, East Birds Head is a stock in this terminology. A language that is not related to any other at a level, such as Greek within Indo-European. East Birds Head stock Mantion isolate Meax family, Meax, Meninggo, saponi The pronouns Ross reconstructs for the familys proto-language are, Papuan languages
28.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
