Asia & the Pacific

Indonesia

• © UNESCO/G.Malempré
• Celebes Islands, Toraja country, Rantejaro, Indonesia

The country hosts the Regional Bureau for Science in Asia and the Pacific, located in Jakarta, which is also the Cluster Office covering Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Timor Leste.

Indonesia is the largest archipelagic state in the world comprising five major islands and about 300 smaller island groups: altogether there are 13,667 islands and islets. The archipelago is situated on a crossroad between two oceans, the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

The very composition of Indonesia makes it a prime candidate for Sustainable Development in Coastal Regions and Small Islands (CSI) projects, especially considering the country’s vulnerability to natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis.

It is currently participating in UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission’s Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System programme (IOTWS), a follow-up action to the 26 December 2004 tsunami.

Below you can access the projects that are currently being implemented in the country within the framework of UNESCO’s Natural Sciences Sector.

Freshwater

- Asian Pacific Flow Regimes from the International Experimental and Network Data (Asian Pacific FRIEND)

People, Biodiversity and Ecology

- Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP)

Oceans

- Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/PTWS)

- UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission’s Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System programme (IOTWS)

Earth Sciences

- Deltas in the Monsoon Asia-Pacific region (DeltaMAP) (IGCP, Project 475)

- Karst Aquifers and Water Resources (IGCP, Project 513)

- Geological Anatomy of East and South East Asia (IGCP, Project 516)

- Quaternary Land-Ocean Interactions (IGCP, Project 495)

- Submarine Mass Movements and their Consequences (IGCP, Project 511)

- Quaternary Land-Ocean Interactions (IGCP, Project 495)

Basic Sciences

- Global Microscience Project (GPME)

Coasts and Small Islands

- Reducing the impact of a coastal megacity on island ecosystems, Jakarta and the Seribu Islands, Indonesia More