Sulawesi - GIS

Front - User Info : Manager

2005-07-17T19:35:00.000-07:00

Manager

Current Information

Business in Sulawesi has golden opportunities which are still hiding under the blanket of the unknown. At this moment not many people know that Sulawesi is an area rich in potential for every kind of business from agriculture and mining to trading and commerce. Its long history has been known internationally but not widely, and it is still piled high with unreleased information.

As part of Indonesia’s eastern territories, Sulawesi is a gateway to neighbors like Maluku and Papua. Its people have been known for their skills (as seafarers or farmers) and for being relatively open-minded in a changing world. With a tradition of hard work and good education, this area is a promised land for both the people of Sulawesi and outsiders.

This web site is the perfect place for business people and managers to find out what the islands have to offer, their record of progress and the potential slumbering there.

Useful Sites

Checking out the map for social-economic (*link to themes) or governmental information and comparing data in the Comparison Area is an effective way for you to discover more about Sulawesi.

If you plan to visit the island for business purposes, you also can check its geography and situation from features in the main menu,including updated information about finance and infrastructure.

Check this site to find more about the people and their development.

front - user info: GIS Tech

2005-07-17T19:22:00.000-07:00

GIS Tech

Benchmarking Sites

Making a web-based GIS is a challenging task. Not only you are dealing with up-dated information in rapid mode, but also you will always find certain experiences that may upgrade your quality.

Visiting this site may help GIS tech specialists find out more about best and worst practice, so web-based GIS can have a brighter future and become both indispensable and also a model for every webmaster in building web sites relating to certain areas, whether geographical or more general.

This map uses Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) technology and utilizes Geomedia Professional v.5.2 and Geomedia Webmap Server developed by Intergraph. We working together with Credents (Intergraph’s Southeast Asia representative) to make this Sulawesi web site available online and updated.

Useful Sites

For beginners, this GIS site might be useful for starting and managing the construction and development of an online map.

Themes - Environment

2005-07-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

Environment

Although not the largest island in Indonesia, Sulawesi is the perfect blend and off course an evolutionary melting pot between two large continents: Asia (including Kalimantan) and Australia (including Papua). Many of Sulawesi’s species can trace their ancestry to these continents. Because it has been isolated from these large landmasses for millions of years, however, the island has seen the evolution of many species not found elsewhere.

Although Kalimantan and Sulawesi are not separated by any significant physical barrier, the birds and mammals of these two islands are different. Sulawesi has the highest level of mammal endemism in Asia and is a major component of the Wallacea Biodiversity Hotspot as designated by Conservation International. Many of these species may be seen in Tangkoko Batuangus Nature Reserve, Bogani Nani Wartabone (formerly known as Dumoga Bone) National Park and Lore Lindu Park.

Of the 127 mammal species found on the island, 79 are found nowhere else in the world. There are 19 endangered species, including the Babirusa, a type of pig whose teeth grow upwards, piercing the skull, the Anoa, a kind of violent dwarf buffalo, the black tailless Macaque, and the Tarsier (tarsius spectrum – the world's smallest primate) which can turn its head 180 degrees and has a body length of just 10 cm.

Snakes are very plentiful in Lore Lindu. There are 68 species in the park, including the largest snake in the world, the reticulated python which has been known to eat people. The python is found throughout South-East Asia, but the biggest one ever recorded—30 feet [9 meters] from head to tail—was found in Sulawesi.

Of its 227 bird species, 77 are found only in Sulawesi, such as the endangered Maleo bird which buries its single 250 gram egg in hot sand near geothermal springs, and incubates in mounds of soil warmed by sunlight, hot springs or volcanic vents, or the brightly-colored Red-knobbed Hornbill which can signal rain. The giant Allo, with a five-foot (1.5-meter) wing span, has even more unusual nesting habits—the male, helped by the female, builds a mud wall to close her in a hollow tree trunk, leaving a slit where he can slip her food. She's shut in until the nesting season is over. Their loud cries sound like harsh laughter, and give an eerie resonance to an already haunting place.

From the botanical standpoint the lines of descent are less clear. Sulawesi's plants appear to be more closely related to those of other drier parts of the archipelago. The predominant trees in the lower montane forests of this eco-region are oaks and chestnuts. As you move higher, more and more conifers are seen. The highest peaks have sub-alpine forests with smaller trees, whose branches are covered in lichen. Shrubs, colorful herbs, and grasses blanket the ground at the higher elevations. Several high-quality woods can be found in the nature reserves, such as ebony, ironwood, linggua, gopasa, nantu, meranti, etc. Rattan and colorful orchids, as well as various wild palms and other plant species, grow in abundance in the forests throughout the region.

Sulawesi is home to countless areas of rainforest, beautiful lakes and an astonishing 11 active volcanoes. Its high volcanic lakes have also produced isolated freshwater ecologies, with each lake supporting its own unique species. Some of the most extensive cave systems in Indonesia can be found on the island, inhabited by species of blind shrimp, long-antennae crickets, giant spiders, bats and cave swallows.

Although the forests of Sulawesi have so far been left relatively intact, logging pressures are increasing dramatically. In addition, it's becoming more and more common for people to burn the forest to clear land for agriculture. More than half of this eco-region’s original forest has been cleared, with only a few fairly large tracts remaining. Agriculture, irrigation schemes, quarrying, and human-induced fire are ongoing threats to native forests. Repeated burnings have resulted in permanent grasslands in some areas and savannas with fire-resistant trees in others.

Sulawesi's incredible wealth of indigenous wildlife is also threatened by loss of habitat through farming, hunting, and most recently, the growth of gold-mining. Miners refine gold using mercury, and then indiscriminately dump the left-over chemicals into streams and rivers, tainting water used by both humans and animals. As the mining shows no sign of diminishing, more and more living beings are at risk of mercury poisoning.

One of the most important lakes in the island is Lake Motano in Sorowako, South Sulawesi, under whose shores there are large deposits of nickel. Mining for this metal causes pollution and destroys habitat. Beside this lake is located the Canadian-owned Inco Nickel mine, which has been there for over 30 years. Lake Motano, created millions of years ago, is the deepest lake in South-East Asia. It supports a range of unique species, as well as providing food, sanitation and a home for lake-shore communities. Commercial fishing, industrial development, and the introduction of non-native species are among the main threats to this eco-region.

Sharks, sea-turtles, dolphins, raja laut (the coelacanth, an ancient fish pre-dating the dinosaurs) and more than 450 species of coral are just some of the creatures that thrive in the Sulu and Sulawesi Seas. Surrounded by Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, this eco-region is one of the richest marine environments on Earth.

Destructive fishing techniques - especially those using dynamite and cyanide - are a major threat to the marine resources here. Although these destructive behaviors have been practised since colonial times, the techniques and methods have undergone significant development. In the early days, the destructive materials were made of natural ingredients (e.g. explosive powder, locally known as serbuk kuning, stuffed into a dry coconut shell). Now the techniques include the use of dynamite made of crop fertilizer stuffed into a soft-drink bottle. In addition, instead of throwing the bomb into the sea water, a detonator is now frequently used. Rapid coastal development and pollution are a permanent nightmare for the oceans and its populations.

Lore Lindu, on Indonesia's island of Sulawesi, is a forest with secrets. There are birds that laugh like people and ancient granite carvings, called megaliths that no one can explain. The megaliths vary in size from a few inches to 15 feet (4.5 meters) high. No one knows who carved them, when, or why. Only now are the existence and location of the megaliths being formally documented. Nature Conservancy is helping Indonesian park officials to find and protect the carvings, as well as the forest around them. So far more than 400 of these carvings have been found in and around the park.

Front - User Info - Student

2005-07-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

Student

Homework helper

Getting to know more about Sulawesi is getting to know a fabulous civilization in a distant region of Indonesia.

Its unique character and its riches attract many people including scientists and businessmen to explore this orchid-shaped island.

If you have an assignment and need to find facts fast, this is the perfect place for you.

Just click on the issue you’re interested in and voila, you’ll find useful information as well as all sorts of related links!

For example, clicking on Environment will lead you to an overview of the general situation, a map showing conservation areas with accurate data and updated information about certain watersheds.

You also can find out how many people live in Muna, for instance, their standard of living, how long they can expect to live and how much money they earn.

Don’t be surprised if you find yourself learning more than you expected from this site ;)

Cool Sites

Visit the Games and short information link about Sulawesi, find something to broad your knowledge in fun way!

Get on target with the Millennium Development Goals, and become a global student and find more about the Games.

popup: People - Great Seafarer

2005-07-06T21:19:00.000-07:00

As mostly people in Sulawesi are a famous trader and farmer, this key economic development can be assured in its own people. People in southern areas like Makassarese, Bugis and Butonese are well-known as seafarer and have history of trading and cultural links with the Aborigines of northern Australia for over 500 years. British explorer Matthew Flinders encountered 60 Indonesian schooners at Melviller Bay in 1803, and today many more still make the risky journey to fish reefs in the cyclone belt off the northern coast of Australia. Meanwhile, northern people relative new comer to sailing folklore, but with their outward looking culture, their language and sailing skills, make them first choice of many captains.

Donor Activity

2005-07-06T20:14:00.000-07:00

The Donor Theme of the Sulawesi GIS provides information about various donor projects and programs currently ongoing in Sulawesi.

Through this theme users can find location of donor projects and programs, as well as links to key information describing these initiatives in more detail.

The first version of Sulawesi GIS provides information about the following donor organizations:

Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID)
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
Australian's Overseas Aid Program (AusAID)
The Asian Development Bank (ADB)
The World Bank (WB)

popup: People and conflict

2005-07-06T19:10:00.000-07:00

Over 12 million people live in Sulawesi, and over half of them live in the province of South Sulawesi. Ethnic groups include the Bugis, the Makasarese and the Mandarese in the southern coastal areas, the Minahasans in the north and the Toraja in the highlands. Around 80% practice Islam, the remainder (17%) are Christians and there is a small percentage of traditional religions. The majority of Christians are located in the north, as well as in the district of Poso in Central Sulawesi. The Muslim population dominates the central, southeastern, and southern provinces.

These peoples usually live together in harmony, but the political upheavals accompanying Suharto’s resignation sparked a religious conflict in Central Sulawesi between Christian and Muslim communities. It is estimated that more than 300 people had died by 2000, and tens of thousands were displaced before an uneasy peace agreement was reached at the end of 2001.

Social violence as a manifestation of social conflict has been paralysing Indonesia in the past ten years. The violence was triggered by the financial crisis beginning in mid-1997, which reached a peak in early 1998 with riots and looting in several parts of Indonesia provoked by shortages and price hikes of basic goods.

Following the fall of Suharto’s New Order regime, identity-based violence erupted throughout the Indonesian archipelago including Central Sulawesi. Many commentators have attributed the increased violence to weakened state institutions which allowed latent conflicts to explode from apparently minor incidents. There have been few comprehensive attempts at characterizing the processes by which identity-based violence arises and escalates or at examining these conflicts from a bottom-up perspective.

At this moment conflict status in Central Sulawesi is at a medium level (measured by the death rate due to conflicts). In 2000, religious violence in the nearby Moluccan Islands spread to the remote Poso region of Central Sulawesi. The northern part of this province is largely Christian, but elsewhere Muslims are in majority. The killings between the previously peaceful communities may have been sparked by business rivalry.

In 2002, both communities made moves towards peace when they agreed to hand over their weapons. However some fighting has continued, mostly in the Poso area.

References:

BPS-Statistic Indonesia et al., “Indonesia Human Development Report 2004: The Economics of Democracy: financing Human Development in Indonesia”, Jakarta: BPS-Statistic Indonesia, Bappenas and UNDP Indonesia, 2004

JICA, “Poverty Profile Executive Summary Republic of Indonesia”, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, February 2001

Tadjoeddin, Mohammad Zulfan; “ Social Violence in the Context of Transition: The case of Indonesia 1990-2001: working paper: 02/01- E”, Jakarta: UNSFIR, April 2002

UNDP, “Indonesia Progress Report on the Millenium Development Goals”, online: http://www.undp.or.id/pubs/imdg2004/ , 2005

World Bank, “Indonesia Country Brief”, Jakarta: World Bank, August 8, 2003

Theme: Government

2005-07-06T19:02:00.000-07:00

For centuries Sulawesi has been divided into various kingdoms. By the 16th century, Makassar had become Sulawesi's major port and centre of the powerful Gowa and Tallo sultanates which between them had a series of 11 fortresses and strongholds and a fortified sea wall which extended along the coast. Sulawesi's colorful history is the story of spices and foreign merchants, of mariners and sultans, and of foreign powers wresting control of the spice trade. Much of South Sulawesi's early history was written in old texts that can be traced back to the 13th and 14th centuries.

In 1511 the Portuguese and Spanish came here to spread Christianity and to trade. They found Makassar a thriving cosmopolitan entrepôt where Chinese, Arabs, Indians, Siamese, Javanese, and Malays came to trade their manufactured metal goods and fine textiles for precious pearls, gold, copper, camphor and, of course, the invaluable spices - nutmeg, cloves and mace - which were brought from the interior and from the neighboring Spice Islands, the present day Maluku.

The Dutch came in the 1600s, expelled the Portuguese and occupied the rich and prosperous island. Between 1666 and 1669 they conquered the natives in the Makasar War and established themselves as colonialists.

The arrival of the Dutch altered events dramatically. Gradually, in defiance of the Dutch, the Arabs, Malays and Bugis returned to trade outside the grim fortress walls and later also the Chinese. The town again became a collecting point for the produce of eastern Indonesia - the copra, rattan, pearls, trepang and sandalwood and the famous oil made from Bado nuts used in Europe as men's hair dressing - hence the anti-macassars (embroidered cloths placed at head rests of upholstered chairs).

In 1960 after independence, under Sukarno, Sulawesi was divided into two provinces, North and South. Four years later, two more provinces were created -- Central Sulawesi was separated from North Sulawesi, and South-East Sulawesi was separated from South Sulawesi. In 2000, the new province of Gorontalo was created. It is one of oldest cities in Sulawesi and used to form part of North Sulawesi. It was followed by West Sulawesi (in 2004). Thus, today Sulawesi is made up of 6 provinces, namely South Sulawesi (the most populated, containing Makasar, the largest city in the island), South-East Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, Gorontalo and North Sulawesi.

Themes: Social

2005-07-06T18:48:00.000-07:00

Social

While coping with the aftermath of the 1997 economic crisis, Sulawesi has been upgrading its social conditions. This can be seen in its health and education figures. In 2002, health conditions showed an overall improvement when compared with figures from 1999. For example, life expectancy in North Sulawesi (the highest in the island) was 70.9 years (up from 68.1) whereas Central Sulawesi (the lowest) was 63.3 (below the national average of 66.2). This is a cause for concern because the Central Sulawesi region is not poor; in fact it has the highest ranking in GRDP.

Life is getting easier in Sulawesi, even though there is still a lot of poverty and hunger in every region. Unfortunately, although it shows a slight improvement in coping with malnutrition, Sulawesi is still under the national average except in North Sulawesi (21.9 in 2002, improved from 25.8 in 1999). Meanwhile Gorontalo suffers the worst conditions with a malnutrition rate of about 42% in children under 5 years old. This year alone nearly 200 children were found suffering from protein-calory malnutrition (marasmic kwashiorkor). However, in general, a slight improvement in the condition has been noted.

Due to the financial crisis, all sectors uniformly experienced an increase in poverty incidence between February 1996 and February 1999, although some export industries in South Sulawesi and North Sulawesi experienced a short-term boom due to exchange rate effects. In 2002, the HPI declined slowly but open unemployment was still high. In South Sulawesi and South-East Sulawesi HPI score above the national HPI average while North Sulawesi shows the highest percentage of open unemployment (15%), followed by South Sulawesi (14.4%), while the lowest is Central Sulawesi (9.6%).

Education is still performing under the national average in Sulawesi. School participation in the 9 year basic education programme is relatively low compared to the average. The highest participation can be found in North Sulawesi (93.9%) with an average of 96.1% for 7-12-year-olds (elementary school). The worst rate for school drop out in 7-15-year-olds is 12.7% (highest in Gorontalo), while nationally it’s only 2.8%.

While in North Sulawesi the situation is relatively secure, the Central Sulawesi region is more volatile and clashes between groups are an ongoing threat. Environmental destruction due to mining (mainly gold) remains the top issue in this area since many researchers have found high levels of pollution in and around the mining sites.

References:

JICA, “Poverty Profile Executive Summary Republic of Indonesia”, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, February 2001

Tadjoeddin, Mohammad Zulfan; “ Social Violence in the Context of Transition: The case of Indonesia 1990-2001: working paper: 02/01- E”, Jakarta: UNSFIR, April 2002

UNDP, “Indonesia Progress Report on the Millenium Development Goals”, online: http://www.undp.or.id/pubs/imdg2004/ , 2005

World Bank, “Indonesia Country Brief”, Jakarta: World Bank, August 8, 2003

Indonesia – Government of Makasar, “Issues Paper prepared for the Makassar Regional Private Sector Forum”, Makasar: The Municipal Government of Makassar and the World Bank, June 25, 2003

front- add: Education

2005-07-06T18:42:00.000-07:00

Education

The development of a nation requires a certain critical mass in education; in other words, a significant percentage of the population needs to have a level of education adequate for supporting rapid economic and social development. Indonesia’s Nine-Year Compulsory Basic Education Programme aims to develop this critical mass and equip society with basic knowledge and skills—whether for going on to higher levels of education, earning a living, making choices or being able to benefit from technological advances and compete with other countries.

Unfortunately, disparities in Sulawesi lead to quite disappointing figures. According to 2004 statistics, the total population with secondary level education (high school and above) averages 20.7% while in North Sulawesi it is 28.62 % and in South-East Sulawesi it is 21.31%, while the lowest educated population is concentrated in Central Sulawesi (18.37 %).

Educational level correlates highly with welfare. In 1999, 87 percent of the poor had primary school education or lower. The Net Enrolment Ratios (NER) of several provinces are still below 60 per cent including Central Sulawesi, Gorontalo, South Sulawesi and South-East Sulawesi (see figures below). Participation in the 9 year basic education programme is relatively low compared to the average. The highest level of participation is found in North Sulawesi (93.9%) where it averages 96.1% for the 7-12 year age group (elementary school). Bad rates of school drop-out are seen in children between 7 and 15, reaching as high as 12.7% (highest in Gorontalo) while the national figure is only 2.8%.

References:

JICA, “Poverty Profile Executive Summary Republic of Indonesia”, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, February 2001

UNDP, “Indonesia Progress Report on the Millenium Development Goals”, online: http://www.undp.or.id/pubs/imdg2004/ , 2005

Popup-History

2005-07-05T23:52:00.000-07:00

Makassar a thriving cosmopolitan entre-port where Chinese, Arabs, Indians, Siamese, Javanese, and Malays came to trade their manufactured metal goods and fine textiles for precious pearls, gold, copper, camphor and, of course, the invaluable spices - nutmeg, cloves and mace which were brought from the interior and from the neighbouring Spice Islands, the present day Moluccas. By the 16th century, Makassar had become Sulawesi's major port and centre of the powerful Gowa and Tallo sultanates which between them had a series of 11 fortresses and strongholds and a fortified sea wall which extended along the coast.

In their search for spices, the Portuguese arrived in Indonesia in 1511, after their conquest of the Islamic Empire of Malacca. They were followed by the Spaniards. Both began to propagate Christianity and were most successful in Minahasa/North Sulawesi and Maluku. However, it wasn't until the arrival of the Dutch in 1600s that Christianity became the predominant religion of North Sulawesi. During 1666-69 Dutch conquered the natives in Makasar War.

In 1960, under Sukarno, Sulawesi was divided into the North and South provinces. Four years later, two more provinces were created as Central Sulawesi was separated from North Sulawesi, and Southeast Sulawesi was separated from South Sulawesi. In 2000 new province Gorontalo born (used to be part of North Sulawesi and one of oldest city in Sulawesi) followed by West Sulawesi (in 2004). Thus, as of today Sulawesi islands contains of 6 provinces.

popup: Makassar Family Life

2005-07-05T21:29:00.000-07:00

Most people in South Sulawesi live in villages. Relations and marriage show big similarities to Western patterns: individuals both belong to the family of the mother as to the family of the father, and a married couple lives in their own house. The relation between father and son is kind of formal. Brothers, who have the same status, are often big rivals. In the Chronic of Tanere, a little kingdom along the western coast, it told that the ongoing fights between brothers were the cause that their father was looking for someone to ascend the throne after him in the neighboring Segiri.

Mothers and daughters have a more close relation, but the best is the relation between brothers and sisters. According to the Buginese and Makasarese the brother is a protector and guardian of his sister. This is an important theme in the Buginese epic poem I La Galigo, which tells about the separation of Sawerigading and his twin sister Wé Tenriabéng. A girl is the symbol of the honor of the family. In earlier days, even a co-incidental meeting between a girl and a guy could lead to severe consequences; the habit demanded that the brother of the girl vengeance to kill the guy. In the tragic poem I La Padoma, the hero La Padoma is killed by the brother of his love, which catches them in a sleeping room. Even nowadays a male visitor coughs upon entering a house sometimes, to give young women the chance to retreat.

Most Makasarese and Buginese girls between three and seven years old are, following Islamic traditions, subjected to clitoridectomy and pearcing the ears. Boys are circumcised between their tenth and fifteenth. The festivity that comes with the operation is often very large, especially in the higher classes. The filing and blackening of the upper teeth is a habit that dates back several hundred years; it used to be for both genders at the start of puberty, but not anymore.

Most marriages are arranged by the parents of the couple, often with the help of a respected elderly. There is a strong favor for marriages with relatives; the ideal marriage is between a full niece and cousin, but marriages between cousins with one generation difference is more often. In the competitive and status-aware communities of South-Sulawesi, an ambitious young man with an aggressive personality is the ideal partner. A girl is expected to have the complementally personality: obedient and timid. Nowadays more youngsters pick partners by themselves. When a couple doesn't get permission from their parents, they tend to get out.

popup: What is Poor ?

2005-07-05T04:05:00.000-07:00

A person is considered poor if and only if his or her expenditure level is below defined poverty line. The poverty line used is basically a minimum standard income required to fulfill his or her basic necessity of both food and non-food. The adequate minimum standard of food used is 2100 kcal energy. The minimum needs for non-food consist of a number of essential items such as housing, clothing, healthcare, education, and transportation, and other commodities.

Poverty is the state of being without, often associated with need, hardship and lack of resources across a wide range of circumstances. For some, poverty is a subjective and comparative term; for others, it is moral and evaluative; and for others, scientifically established. The principal uses of the term include:

Descriptions of material need, including deprivation of essential goods and services, multiple deprivation, and patterns of deprivation over time.
Economic circumstances, describing a lack of wealth (usually understood as capital, money, material goods, or resources, especially natural resources). The meaning of "sufficient" varies widely across the different political and economic parts of the world. In the European Union, poverty is also described in terms of "economic distance", or inequality.
Social relationships, including social exclusion, dependency, and the ability to live what is understood in a society as a "normal" life: for instance, to be capable of raising a healthy family, and especially educating children and participating in society.

A person living in the condition of poverty is said to be poor or impoverished.

For years, scholars have debated alternative conceptions of poverty. We outline three alternatives in this section:

The absolute approach: poverty is having less than an objectively defined absolute minimum.
The relative approach: poverty is having less than others in society.
The subjective approach: poverty is feeling you do not have enough to get along.

Absolute Poverty

The idea that individuals are poor if they have insufficient income to purchase some objective minimum bundle of goods has a long history. In 1901, Rowntree classified families as poor if their total earnings are insufficient to obtain the minimum necessities for the maintenance of merely physical efficiency. This idea underlies both the United States official poverty lines, which are derived from recommended minimum adequate food budgets,14 and the Market Basket Measures recently proposed by Human Resources Development Canada. An appeal of such measures is that they represent a fixed benchmark against which progress can be measured over time. A major disadvantage is that it is extremely difficult to choose an objectively defined .minimum set of necessities, and that this minimum standard will necessarily change over time. For instance, indoor plumbing and electricity would now be regarded as “necessities” in Canada, but this is not necessarily true in other countries, nor was it true in Canada earlier in the century.

Relative Poverty

A relative conception of poverty defines individuals as poor if they have significantly less income than others around them. This perspective also has a very long history: Adam Smith wrote more than 200 years ago: “Under necessaries”, therefore, I comprehend not only those things which nature, but those things which the established rules of decency have rendered necessary to the lowest rank of people. Most typically, relative measures of poverty define poor individuals as having less than some percentage (40% or 50%) of median equivalent income. A major advantage of this approach is its simplicity and transparency. It requires no decisions about what constitutes a minimum necessary basket.

Subjective Poverty

The subjective approach to defining poverty is more popular in Europe than in North America. This approach argues that individuals are poor when they feel they do not have enough to get along. Proponents argue that the best way to assess how much income people need to “make ends meet” is to ask them. Thus, subjective poverty lines are constructed from surveys that ask questions such as: Living where you do now and meeting the expenses you consider necessary, what would be the very smallest income you and your family would need to make ends meet? Of course, answers to this question increase with the respondents income, and estimates of subjective poverty lines take this phenomenon into account.

source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor

JICA, “Poverty Profile Executive Summary Republic of Indonesia”, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, February 2001

Phipps, Shelley , “The Impact of Poverty on Health:a scan of research literature”, Canada: CIHI, 2003

popup-Bugis Kingdom

2005-07-05T03:32:00.000-07:00

Luwu, the horseshoe-shaped region capping the Gulf of Bone, is at once the most ancient and most modern region in South Sulawesi. Believed to be the site of the first Bugis kingdom, Luwu became an open frontier. With Javanese and Balinese transmigrants mixing with long-isolated local tribes to generate a fascinating mixture of peoples and cultures.

The most incongruous addition to the region is a relocated Canadian mining town at Sorowako (now East Luwu), built for expatriate mining specialists but now populated mostly by Indonesian managers and professionals. The nickel mine and associated facilities have brought good roads and other modern facilities to Luwu, but the air of an untamed land, reinforced by the looming presence of the Central Sulawesi mountain range, remains.

glossary - Natural environment

2005-07-05T02:34:00.000-07:00

By natural environment is meant the "environment of nature", in contrast to some other environment or external milieu that is man-made (and thus, not "natural").

The word "ecolog" is often used in this same sense to mean the natural world that surrounds us and is largely outside of our obvious manipulations, although certainly not beyond mankind's ability to impact.

Within the biosphere, there exists no straight-forward way to separate what belongs to the natural environment and what does not, partly for the reason that humans are part of nearly all natural environments and have been for hundreds of thousands of years. Thus, most people would admit that some level of human exploitation is allowable without the status of any particular landscape ceasing to be a natural one.

At some level, urban dwellers would consider a large park to be a natural environment (despite nearly everything present having been arranged or planted) for its contrast in presentation of nature to the standard streets and buildings of the city. Thus, "natural environment" is a term whose exact meaning is often dependent upon context.

popup: Watu Pinawetengan ( A megalithic stone )

2005-07-05T02:07:00.000-07:00

A megalithic stone of the ancestors of Minahasa, its surface is covered with crude, mysterious live drawings and scripts which have never been deciphered. These inscriptions have the shape of humans, penises of men, vaginas of women, and other unclear motifs. Scientists suspect that these inscriptions are religious symbols of a community of the megalith culture, namely a belief in the spirits of forefathers who are supposed to have magical powers and therefore arrange and define the life of people in this world. Therefore people must perform certain sacrificial rituals to be safe or obtain what they hope to get (like a good harvest, to avoid bad luck or chase away sickness) by using large stones as their place of sacrifice.

It measures 4 m long and 2 m high and is one of remnants left by the Minahasan Tribes (who were descendants of Toar & Lumimu'ut) where they negotiated the territorial division, unification, peace, and war against their enemies. According to Minahasa history, this is the place where the ancestors first divided up the land among the people (Watu Pinabetengan means "The stone of discussion about the division"). The ruling was made in order to ensure a peaceful and harmonious life. Seven divisions were made amongst different areas of Tombulu, Tonsea, Toulour, Tontemboan, Tonsawang, Ponosakan and Pasan Ratahan.

This is located in Tompaso, Pinabetengan village about 45 km from Manado.

Source:

http://www.theminahasa.com/history/stories/megalith05.html

http://www.petra.ac.id/eastern/north_sul/tour_obj/Megalit/watu_pinawetengan.htm

http://www.theminahasa.com/glossary/indexM.html

PopUp: Eco region

2005-07-05T01:34:00.000-07:00

An eco region is "a relatively large area of land or water that contains a geographically distinct assemblage of natural communities."

This description is part of a definition, by the World Wildlife Fund that is widely accepted and used. However, the use of the term "relatively large" is interpreted differently in different locales. Another way of looking at an ecoregion is a "recurring pattern of ecosystems associated with characteristic combinations of soil and landform that characterize that region" (Brunckhorst, 2000).

Others have defined eco regions as areas of ecological potential based on combinations of biophysical parameters such as climate and topography. Biodiversity is also an important aspect of the study of eco regions. The biodiversity of flora, fauna and ecosystems that characterize an ecoregion tend to be distinct from that of other eco regions.

The World Wildlife Fund's full definition of an ecoregion is the following:

A large area of land or water that contains a geographically distinct assemblage of natural communities that

(a) share a large majority of their species and ecological dynamics;

(b) share similar environmental conditions, and;

(c) interact ecologically in ways that are critical for their long-term persistence.

World Wildlife Fund ecologists currently divide the land surface of the Earth into 8 major ecozones containing 867 smaller terrestrial eco regions (see list). Many consider this classification to be quite decisive, and some propose these as stable borders for bioregional democracy initiatives.

The ecozones are very well-defined, following major continental boundaries, while the eco regions are subject to more change and controversy. Accordingly, Wikipedia organizes ecology articles under each of the ecozones.

The use of the term ecoregion is an outgrowth of a surge of interest in ecosystems and their functioning. In particular, there is awareness of issues relating to spatial scale in the study and management of landscapes.

It is widely recognized that interlinked ecosystems combine to form a whole that is "greater than the sum of its parts." There are many attempts to respond to ecosystems in an integrated way to achieve "multi-functional" landscapes and various interest groups from agricultural researchers to conservationists are using the ecoregion as a unit of analysis.

PopUp: anismism

2005-07-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

Animism (from animus, or anima, mind or soul), originally means the doctrine of spiritual beings, including human souls. It is often extended to include the belief that personalized, supernatural beings (or souls) endowed with reason, intelligence and volition inhabit ordinary objects as well as animate beings, and govern their existence (pantheism or animatism). This can be stated simply as "everything is alive" 'everything is conscious" or "everything has a soul".

an·i·mism (ăn'ə-mĭz'əm)
n.

The belief in the existence of individual spirits that inhabit natural objects and phenomena.
The belief in the existence of spiritual beings that are separable or separate from bodies.
The hypothesis holding that an immaterial force animates the universe.

Souce: http://www.answers.com/animism

popup: Waruga

2005-07-04T04:31:00.000-07:00

These ancient cemetery of Minahasan ancestors consist of 144 stone sarcophagi, remnants of the Megalithic age. "Waruga" sarcophagi are unique square stone with holes in the middle and prism shaped lids. The tombs are carved with various motifs such as human beings, plants, animals, and traditional geometrical motifs like clouds, strings, curls and double braids. The cemetery is located in Sawangan village, about 24 km from Manado.

Waruga is a stone grave made of domato stone or mountain stone. Some warugas are already hundreds of years old, some of them are 500 years old, and some are even 1,200 years old. In 1817, the warugas were collected, and they were all 144 warugas. All over Minahasa, there are 2,000 warugas. The making of waruga was prohibited in 1800 because of the spreading of cholera and typhoid which might be caused by the unpleasant smell coming out of the warugas. Since then, dead people have been buried under the ground.

Waruga is the traditional cemetery of Minahasan. That time, everybody made their own warugas. On the warugas they carved motifs which reflected each of their occupations. If the person was a judge, then the motif was court of justice. In the cemetery, there is a waruga with the motif of a woman giving birth to a child. It is said that it is the grave of a midwives. According to the local belief, childless couple could have children if they visit the midwives waruga.

The way to do a funeral:
When a person dies, then the corpse will be seated on a chair and tied there until it is stiff. After that, the corpse is untied, and then it is brought to circle the house three times as a symbol that the person is no longer among his/her family, but in another world. The corpse then put into waruga with a plate under it, and all his/her beloved things (such as: blade, glass, bracelet, necklace, beads, pendant, etc) are also put inside waruga.

Source:

http://www.petra.ac.id/eastern/north_sul/tour_obj/waruga.htm

Poverty

2005-07-04T04:22:00.000-07:00

Sulawesi – like so many parts of Indonesia – has continued its faltering recovery after the national financial collapse in 1997 that triggered a whole series of upheavals – economic, social and political. This has been reflected in Indonesia’s Human Development Inde (HDI), which fell between 1996 and 1999 and then rose again in 2002. The average HDI value for Indonesia in 2002 is 66, though this masks considerable variations across the country – ranging from 76 in East Jakarta to 47 in the district of Jayawijaya in Papua.

The increase in the HDI corresponds to improvements in most social indicators. Average adult literacy, for example, continues to rise in response to the increase in school enrolment: by 2002, 89.5% of the population aged 15 or over could read and write. North Sulawesi shows the fastest improvement and has the highest score in the island with 98.8% (up from 97.2% in 1999) while South Sulawesi is slowest with 83.5% (up from 83.2%).

Other indicators have also registered progress. Thus the infant mortality rate continues to fall. North Sulawesi is most fortunate, with an infant mortality rate of 25.2 per 1000 while Central Sulawesi has most deaths (57.8 per 1000). Birth delivery assisted by medical personnel is also highest in North Sulawesi (85.2%) while it is lowest (34%) in South-East Sulawesi.

Average child malnutrition has also declined - from 35% in 1996 to 27% in 2002, but terrible figures can still be found in Gorontalo (42%) while North Sulawesi remains best off (improving from 25,8% to 21,9%). Unfortunately this late June 2005 malnutrition case is found in South Sulawesi and South-East Sulawesi

Improvement in the HDI has been accompanied by reductions in poverty. Between 1999 and 2002 the proportion of people living in income poverty fell from 23% to 18%. Unfortunately, Sulawesi is still an area where the distribution of poverty is highly concentrated, along with Java (highest in central and east Java), Lamung and most of the eastern Islands. Deprivation can also be found sporadically in some areas such as southern, south-eastern and western Sulawesi.

Disparities between poor and better-off districts in Sulawesi vary. There is a similar phenomenon in some islands, where the poverty distribution gap is huge within districts, but not between regions. In Sulawesi only 2% of urban areas have high poverty rates, as opposed to more than 14% of villages.

In term of per capita GRDP in 2002, Central Sulawesi [GRDP=2,053] grabs the highest rank (ranking 12 among other regions in Indonesia), followed by North Sulawesi [1,695] (rank 17), South Sulawesi [1,340] (rank 21), Gorontalo [1,117] (rank 25) and last South-East Sulawesi [948] (rank 29). Meanwhile in terms of HDI, North Sulawesi has the highest score [1,695) (ranking 17 among other regions in Indonesia) and South-East Sulawesi again has the lowest rank of 29 [948].

These facts show us that rich regions do not automatically achieve overall prosperity. The HDI reveals this by showing the overall non-economic performance of a country (or region) in three basic dimensions of human development: longevity, knowledge and a decent standard of living. It is measured by life expectancy, educational attainment and adjusted income.

Improvement in HDI also reflects progress for the population as a whole. And the poorest have also benefited from this progress to some extent. Ranked by the poverty index, once again North Sulawesi comes off best, improving almost 5 points from rank 5 (1999) [HPI=22.7] to 4 (2002) [17.8, lower is better], while South-East Sulawesi shows a sad decline with rank 20 (from 6) [falling to 25.8 from 22.9). Meanwhile Gorontalo, as the youngest region when these statistics were compiled was at rank 29 with an HPI of 32.4. At this compilation, the average score for Indonesia was 22.7 and the best score was 13.2 for DKI Jaya.

The figures revealing this sad situation and the high gap are certainly not good news for Sulawesi whose land is so rich and whose people deserve better than what they have now.

References:

BPS-Statistics Indonesia et al., “Human Development in Indonesia: the Economic Arithmetic of Democracy”, Jakarta: UNSFIR, 2004

BPS-Statistics Indonesia et al., “The Economics of Democracy: financing human development in Indonesia”, Jakarta: BPS-Statistics Indonesia, Bappenas and UNDP Indonesia, 2004

Suryahadi, Asep et al., Developing a Poverty Map for Indonesia (A Tool for Better Targeting in Poverty Reduction and Social Protection Programs) Book1: Technical Report, Jakarta, SMERU, February 2005

PopUp: Sulawesi Palm Civet

2005-07-01T01:26:00.000-07:00

Macrogalidia musschenbroekii first described by Schlegel, 1877, The Sulawesi palm civet is a rusty brown agouti color, with lighter undersides. They have faint brown spots on the sides and lower back, and their tail is heavily ringed. Their fur is very short and dense with a whorl of fur on their neck. They have 4 mammae. Once found in park Lore Lindu in 1999, with 130 centimetres long from head to tail and weighs 9 kilograms.

This civet is very shy and an acrobatic tree climber. They are believed to be arboreal, nocturnal, and solitary. Nothing is known about their reproduction.

The Sulawesi palm civet eats a variety of fruits, as well as rodents, birds,eggs, snails and scorpians.

The Sulawesi palm civet lives only on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. They inhabit lowland and mountainous forests up to about 2600 m. Unfortunately Palm civet is somewhat rare throughout its range, and is affected by deforestation.

PopUp: The Geography of Poverty - Why Do Poor Areas Exist?

2005-07-01T00:35:00.000-07:00

Analysts examining the causes and spatial clustering of poverty, generally point to individual or structural explanations. Individual explanations concentrate on human capital (education, skills, etc.) and endowments of productive resources. Structural explanations focus on structural factors that constrain opportunities. They include constraints imposed by the economy, social system and geography, for example limited job supply, discrimination, and poor natural resource endowments (Crump, 1997).

Ravallion summarizes explanations for poor areas under two theoretical models, one named “individualistic” and the other “geographic.” The individualistic model assumes that people are highly mobile and migrate to or remain in poor areas because of specific wage and price incentives. Poor areas are thus a consequence of personal decisions and, if they persist over time, reflect local resource endowments, rents for housing and land, etc. In some cases, poor areas could also result from a time lag in the adjustment process of labor markets because individuals are unable to migrate or are delaying their relocation.

Poverty researchers using an individualistic model try to identify causes of poverty at the individual level. They do not attribute any causal significance to spatial inequalities in resource endowments (geographic capital), although they see differences in geographic endowment as the sorting mechanism that leads to spatial poverty concentrations. Consequently, they would target their anti-poverty measures towards improving the endowment of individuals, for example by providing training opportunities (Ravallion, 1996b).

In Ravallion’s geographic model, the mobility of individuals is restricted and poverty has a causal link to geography. Local factors such as climate, soil type, infrastructure, and access to social services change the marginal returns of investments, for example to a given level of education. Barriers to migration ensure that these differences persist.

The degree to which individual or geographic factors are causing poverty has implications for developing a strategy of agricultural research aimed at improving the situation of the poor in marginal areas. If geographic factors play an important role, then geographic targeting of agricultural research to the poor in marginal lands can become a useful tool to address poverty issues. If individual characteristics explain most of the local poverty, and individuals are free to migrate, then the mobility of people and capital will limit the success of targeting marginal lands.

Each of the two theoretical models has shortcomings in explaining the spatial clustering of the poor. The two models have not been compared sufficiently yet. Typically, either one or a combination of individual and structural factors are identified as causes for poverty and its spatial concentration (Miller, 1996).

A study on migration and poverty in the USA confirmed that the spatial concentration of poverty is a reflection of differences in economic opportunities. In this study, poor people migrated to poor areas, because they faced an overall lack of opportunities throughout most areas. High poverty areas provided them with small but real economic opportunities, for example a greater availability of low skill jobs and inexpensive housing.

A detailed study of high poverty areas, however, could identify the opportunity structure that attracts and keeps poor people (Nord et al., 1995). This structure is often seen as an impediment for people trying to escape from poverty or for the effectiveness of anti-poverty interventions (spatial poverty trap). Spatial poverty concentrations may be intensified by further discrimination or exclusion. For example, a bank decides not to extend its credit programs to high poverty areas. The subsequent lack of access to financial services will impact local economic development, increasing the differences between poor and non-poor areas (Leyshon, 1995).

There is some empirical evidence to defend the concept of a spatial poverty trap. A study for rural China supported the idea of a spatial poverty trap (Jalan and Ravallion, 1997). Studies examining urban poverty concentrations in the USA have used the neighborhood effects hypothesis which assumes that the prospects for leaving poverty are partly influenced by the neighborhood, e.g. access to education and other services, and its social environment, e.g. values of local communities affect individual aspirations and expectations (O’Regan and Wiseman, 1990).

Source:

HENNINGER, NORBERT; “MAPPING AND GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF HUMAN WELFARE AND POVERTY ----- REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT”, Washington, D.C., USA, World Resources Institute, April 1998

Pop Up: Poverty Map

2005-07-01T00:25:00.000-07:00

Put simply, a “poverty map” is a map that contains information on where the poor live. It can capture the heterogeneity of poverty within a country (or region). A poverty map can reveal the variation in local poverty levels and can therefore show a large degree of local heterogeneity at the province, district, sub-district, or village level in seemingly homogeneous regions.

As a result, if poverty maps are available, they can be used to improve the targeting of intervention. This means that resources can be used more effectively in designing poverty reduction programs. If the neediest groups can be more accurately targeted, it will reduce the leakage of benefits from poverty reduction programs to non-poor people, and it will also reduce the risk that poor people will be excluded from programs.

Why Poverty Maps ?

Poverty maps provide a geographical picture of poverty. They stratify poverty data from different topographical or administrative areas and then allocate patterns on a base map so that spatial differences become more visible.

Poverty maps are useful for obtaining general overviews and for undertaking or confirming general targeting. However, they may also disguise local differences by averaging data across large areas. For most project design purposes, poverty maps should use data from the county level or lower, which may be available from agency databases, statistical yearbooks, censuses, etc.

Such detailed poverty maps covering small administrative areas help address the shortcomings of aggregate poverty profiles in many ways. Poverty analysis is often based on national level indicators that are compared over time or across countries. The broad trends that can be identified using aggregate information are useful for evaluating and monitoring the overall performance of a country. For many policy and research applications, however, the information that can be extracted from aggregate indicators is not sufficient. This is because they are unable to show significant local variations in living conditions within countries.

Poverty maps of small administrative areas can greatly enhance and sharpen poverty analysis.

Small-area poverty maps can reveal the variations in local poverty levels. Most countries in the world have regions that are better off and others that lag behind. Such differences are often obscured in national statistics – a problem that is particularly critical in large and heterogeneous countries such as Indonesia

Poverty maps can improve intervention targeting, so that resources can be used more effectively. Poverty maps can help reduce the risk of program benefits leaking to non-poor households. Similarly, they can reduce the risk of under-coverage – the risk that poor households will be missed by a program.

Poverty maps can help governments to state their policy goals more objectively. Basing allocation decisions on empirical geographical poverty data, rather than subjective regional ranking, increases the transparency and credibility of government decision-making. Poverty maps can therefore help limit the influence of special interests in allocation decisions. This is particularly relevant in the context of a highly decentralized country such as Indonesia is currently. By increasing transparency, poverty maps can help prevent a regional autonomy policy from being hijacked by local elites.

Poverty maps can become an important tool for local empowerment and decentralization. Disaggregated information on human welfare and other locally relevant information is useful not only to governments and decision-makers, but also to local communities. Poverty maps therefore provide local stakeholders with the facts needed both for local decision-making and for negotiations with government agencies.

Poverty maps are useful tools for evaluating the impact of interventions. In addition, poverty maps open up more opportunities to undertake detailed empirical research on the causal relationships between local poverty, income inequality, and various other social outcomes, both at the individual and the community levels.

Quantifying small-area indicators of poverty allows their incorporation into geographical information systems (GIS). This feature of poverty maps facilitates the combination of poverty information with other indicators from policy-relevant subject areas. Examples are geographical databases of transport infrastructure, public service centers, access to input and output markets, or information on the quality of natural resources.

Using geographical overlay techniques and spatial analysis methods, poverty databases constructed in this way can be used to address a range of multidisciplinary questions. The databases can also be used by the private sector to guide them in determining the locations for new investment opportunities.

Poverty maps can also reveal the variation of welfare across a given area. The higher the resolution of the map, the greater the variation that is revealed.

The maps can provide rapid information on the spatial distribution of poverty. Analysts are beginning to produce poverty maps with a finer resolution, by geo-referencing surveys and integrating the data with other information. Linking poverty assessments to maps also provides new benefits in addition to the applications outlined above:

Poverty maps make it easier to integrate data from various sources such as surveys, censuses, and satellites, and from different disciplines such as social, economic, and environmental data. This can help in defining and describing poverty. For example, by comparing spatial patterns of income with educational level, access to services, and market integration, different dimensions of human well-being can be examined or even integrated.

A spatial framework allows switching to new units of analysis, for example from administrative boundaries to ecological boundaries, and allows access to new variables like community characteristics, not collected in the original survey.

Identifying spatial patterns with poverty maps can provide new insights into the causes of poverty. They can help answer such questions as the extent to which physical isolation and poor agro-ecological endowments constitute impediments to escaping from poverty. This in turn affects the type of interventions to consider.

The allocation of resources can be improved. Poverty maps can assist in the best locations and methods for anti-poverty programs. Geographical targeting, as opposed to across-the-board subsidies, has been shown to be effective at maximizing the coverage of the poor while minimizing leakage to the non-poor (Baker and Grosh, 1995). Research examining highly focused geographical targeting at the community level is currently being conducted in Burkina Faso. Using appropriate scaling and robust poverty indicators, poverty maps can assist in the implementation of anti-poverty programs, for example by promoting subsidies in poor communities and cost recovery in less poor areas.

Poverty maps with a high resolution can support efforts to decentralize and localize decision making. Maps are a powerful tool for visualizing spatial relationships and can be very effective in reaching policy makers, thus providing an additional return on investments in survey data, which often remain unused and unanalysed after the initial report or study is completed.

Internationally comparable poverty maps applying a consistent set of indicators at sub-national level can improve the decision-making and strategic planning of international development organizations that have previously had to rely mostly on national indicators.

Most national poverty assessments based on household and community surveys have compiled data that permit disaggregation into broad categories such as urban and rural areas, socio-economic characteristics such as household types and educational backgrounds, and major geographical regions such as a coastal, forest, and savannah zones. These poverty assessments have helped in:

1. defining poverty;

2. describing the situation and problem;

3. identifying and understanding causes of poverty;

4. developing programs and formulating policies, and

5. selecting interventions and guiding the allocation of resources.

References:

Henninger, Norbert; “Mapping And Geographic Analysis Of Human Welfare And Poverty ----- Review And Assessment”, Washington, D.C., USA, World Resources Institute, April 1998

Suryahadi, Asep et al., Developing a Poverty Map for Indonesia (A Tool for Better Targeting in Poverty Reduction and Social Protection Programs) Book1: Technical Report., Jakarta, SMERU, February 2005

Pop Up: Mapping Causes of Poverty

2005-06-30T19:08:00.001-07:00

A closer look at the causes and types of poverty may help to identify other indicators that could be mapped sub nationally. For example, if a poverty assessment finds that the majority of the poor are landless laborers, pastoralists, and indigenous populations and information is available on the proportion of these population groups within each district, then mapping the location of these groups can become a useful proxy for the spatial distribution of poverty.

Two reviews classifying causes and types of poverty, one by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) the other by IFAD, are summarized below (Sida, 1996; Jazairy et al., 1992).

Sida identifies four major interacting conditions that determine well-being or poverty status:

· Lack of material assets and productive resources.

· Low level of human resource development (education, skills, and health).

· Lack of power (economical and political).

· Vulnerability (fragile economic base and frequent exposure to shocks and fluctuations).

Sida proposes a typology of poverty with the following broad categories:

· Occupational based poverty - Typically, this can be found among landless farm laborers, marginal farmers, traditional fishing populations, and pastoralists.

· Poverty associated with disadvantaged populations - All marginalized social groups such as indigenous populations, tribal populations, and groups relegated to a low status are included here.

· Poverty resulting from discrimination based on biological attributes - Material deprivation can be the result of age or gender discrimination.

· Geographically determined poverty - People living in a specific region may be materially deprived because the area is deficient in resources, isolated, and/or avoided, intentionally or unintentionally, by government policies and programs.

Sources:

HENNINGER, NORBERT; “MAPPING AND GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF HUMAN WELFARE AND POVERTY ----- REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT”, Washington, D.C., USA, World Resources Institute, April 1998

Pop Up: Maize

2005-06-30T01:23:00.000-07:00

Maize is a gigantic domesticated grass of tropical Mexican origin. The plant is used to produce grain and fodder that are the basis of a number of food, feed, pharmaceutical and industrial manufactures. Cultivation of maize and the elaboration of its food products are inextricably bound with the rise of pre-Colombian Mesoamerican civilizations. Due to its adaptability and productivity the culture of maize spread rapidly around the globe after Spaniards and other Europeans exported the plant from the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries. Maize is currently produced in most countries of the world and is the third most planted field crop (after wheat and rice).

In contrast to rice, corn is primarily a New World staple, first cultivated by the Indians of South, Central and North America. Corn contains phytosterols and is a good source of protein and high in vitamin E. When combined with dried beans and green vegetables, corn provided sound nutrition for the Indians. In fact, corn bread and beans are the main sources of protein and carbohydrates in traditional Mexican diets.

Throughout Europe, "corn" has always been the generic name for any of the cereal grains. Europeans call corn "maize", a derivative of the early American Indian word mahiz. In fact, before settlers came to the New World Europeans had never seen this food — called Indian corn by colonists. What a wonderfully versatile and useful gift the Indians gave the world. Everything on the corn plant can be used: the husks for tamales, the silk for medicinal tea, the kernels for food and the stalks for fodder.

As far as is known, maize arrived in Africa sometime after the early 1500's. It quickly spread and is now common throughout the continent. In Africa, maize is often ground into meal (mealie-meal) which is then made into Fufu-like staples such as Fufu, Banku & Kenkey, Nshima, Ugali, and Sadza, that are eaten with sauces, soups, and stews. In Eastern Africa it is used in Irio. Boiled corn is sometimes prepared at home. Grilled corn on the cob, Maïs grillé in French-speaking Africa, is often available from street-vendors as a sort of African fast food.

Horticulturists developed the two most popular varieties today — white (Country Gentleman) and yellow (Golden Bantam) corn. Yellow corn has larger, fuller-flavored kernels; white corn kernels are smaller and sweeter. The hybrid butter and sugar corn produces ears of yellow and white kernels. As soon as it's picked, the corn's sugar immediately begins its gradual conversion to starch which, in turn, lessens the corn's natural sweetness.

Maize in Indonesia is the second most important cereal crop after rice with about 19 per cent of the total area planted to food crops during 1970-2000. Around 89 per cent of maize is grown on rain-fed lowland and dry land with erratic rainfall and low fertility. This means that maize is mainly grown in marginal areas with low productivity. This agro ecosystem is also an environment where poor farmers, with smallholdings and limited resources, are living. Their farms are spread over remote areas with poor communication facilities and little access to information. Moreover, in East Java, East Nusa Tenggara, North Sulawesi, South-East Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya, maize is consumed as a staple food as well as rice.

In general, maize consumption in Indonesia can be grouped into four categories namely: (1) direct human consumption, (2) feed industry, (3) food industry, and (4) other usage (seed, loss, etc.). FAO data indicates that the share of maize demand for direct food to the total domestic demand declined dramatically from about 68 per cent in 1970 to around 7 per cent in 2001. In contrast, maize demand for feed increased steadily at an average rate of 6.4 per cent per year during 1970-2001, although during the Asian monetary crisis (1997-2001) it declined by nearly 5 per cent per year.

Increases and decreases in maize demand for the feed industry are highly determined by the performance of the poultry industry. During the crisis, the poultry industry collapsed, thus the demand for feed and therefore maize declined significantly.

References:

Swastika, Dewa K.S., “Developing Maize for Improving Poor Farmers' Income in Indonesia”, in CGPRT Flash: vol. II No. 4, 2004. Online: http://www.uncapsa.org/Flash/flash0404.pdf

Other sources:

http://www.answers.com/topic/maize-1

http://www.congocookbook.com/

http://www.petpepup.com/ingredients/corn.shtml

pop up: How Poverty can be Reduced by Developed Countries

2005-06-30T00:26:00.000-07:00

Seventy per cent of the world's poorest people live in rural areas and depend on agriculture. The Millennium Development Goal of reducing poverty and halving the proportion of people earning less than $ 1 per day can only be achieved by improving the lot of poor farmers and creating

viable agricultural communities. Poor farmers cannot escape the poverty trap if they are forced to compete with products subsidized by the richest countries, in world trade and their own domestic markets. The elements of a solution include effectively pursuing the process of reform in market access, domestic support and export competition, while providing greater flexibility for developing countries to pursue rural development and food security. Most importantly, there is need for the EU, Japan and the United States to reduce subsidies, cut tariff and non-tariff protection, address tariff peaks and escalation. The recent decision to reform the EU's Common Agricultural Policy is a positive step, but this needs to be translated into ambitious negotiating proposals.

Based on UNDP, 2003. UNDP Policy Statement on Trade Issues at Fifth World Trade Organization Ministerial Meeting, Cancun, Mexico (September 2003).

The Millenium Development Goals

2005-06-29T01:27:00.000-07:00

In September 2000 at the Millennium Summit, the Government of Indonesia, along with 188 others, signed the UN Millennium Declaration, an ambitious agenda committing the nation to reducing poverty, improving health and education, and promoting peace, human rights and environmental sustainability. A set of development goals, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), emerged out of the Declaration, setting specific, measurable targets to be achieved by 2015. As a signatory, the Government of Indonesia has made a commitment to take action to realize these goals and to monitor progress towards their achievement.

Each goal is associated with a number of specific targets, using 1990 as a benchmark, may have one or more indicators.

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Target for 2015: Halve the proportion of people living on less than dollar a day and those who suffer from hunger.

2. Achieve universal primary education

Target for 2015: Ensure that all boys and girls complete primary school.

3. Promote gender equality and empower women

Targets for 2005 and 2015: Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.

4. Reduce child mortality

Target for 2015: Reduce by two-thirds the mortality rate among children under five.

5. Improve maternal health

Target for 2015: Reduce by three-quarters the ratio of women dying in childbirth.

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Target for 2015: Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.

7. Ensure environmental sustainability

Targets:

* Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources.

* By 2015, reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water.

* By 2020 achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.

8. Develop a global partnership for development

Targets:

* Develop further an open trading and financial system that includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction nationally and internationally.

* Address the least developed countries’ special needs, and the special needs of landlocked and small island developing States.

* Deal comprehensively with developing countries’ debt problems.

* Develop decent and productive work for youth.

* In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries.

* In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies – especially information and communications technologies.

These targets express the collective commitment of the international community to focus development co-operation and global governance on the eradication of extreme poverty. They have been taken particularly seriously by key multilateral agencies (including the UN system and the World Bank) and by some bilateral.

References:

ODI, “The Millennium Development Goals and the use of Targets in development policy” online: http://www.odi.org.uk/mdg/, 2005

Satterthwaite, David (ed), “The Millennium Development Goals and Local Processes: booklet”; IIED, 2003. available online: http://www.iied.org/docs/mdg/MDG-booklet.pdf

UNDP, “Indonesia Progress Report on the Millenium Development Goals”, online: http://www.undp.or.id/pubs/imdg2004/ , 2005

Lowland Anoa (Bubalus depressicornis )

2005-06-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

This native Sulawesi species, Anoa (means buffalo in local language) is perhaps one of most endangered species that has not yet studied intensively. It is a miniature water buffalo, a type of wild cattle, similar in appearance to a deer, weighing 150 - 300 kg (330 - 660 lb). The thick black hide is covered with short, dark brown hair, with males tending to be darker than females. The undersides may be light brown. There are white markings on the head and lower legs, and a white crescent-shaped throat bib. Stout limbs support the plump body. The short, triangular-based horns are found in both sexes and are flattened along the top. They begin at the edge of the forehead and point diagonally backwards, growing 18-37 cm / 7-14.5 inches in length.

Lowland anoas belong to the family Bovidae, which includes about 23 species of cattle and spiral-horned antelopes. They also belong to the subfamily Bovinae that includes about 24 species of cattle. The lowland anoa belongs to the genus Bubalus, which includes four species: lowland anoa (Bubalus depressicornis), mountain anoa (Bubalus quarlesi), wild water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) and tamarau (Bubalus mindorensis).

It lives in undisturbed shaded, swampy, lowland forest and mostly found solitary (except during breeding and having baby). Anoas frequently wallow in mud and water. They have been seen drinking seawater which might fulfill their mineral needs in areas that do not have salt licks or mineral spring water. Their diets are grass, herbs, leaves, fruit and marsh and aquatic plants.

There is no record about their breeding season, but females and males sexually mature at about age 2. The gestation period lasts from 275 to 315 days. When calving time nears, females will go off alone. Usually in a year one offspring is born and rarely twins. The calf has thick, bright rufous-orange, woolly hair.

Anoas feed during the morning, resting in shade through the hottest parts of the day. The preferred gait is a walk, though when fleeing, they are known to make clumsy leaps. Their bodies are very efficient at crashing through the forest undergrowth, with the short horns being held close to the back in order to avoid being tangled. However, if cornered or approached within a critical distance, anoas will turn and attack violently.

The anoa is considered very excitable and dangerous to its opponents (and also very aggressive towards human), as its sharp horns can be used as daggers. This is especially true for young bulls in the breeding season, and females with young. Several anoa fatalities in zoos have resulted from attempts to keep these solitary animals in pairs or groups, with the larger animals disemboweling their counterparts with their horns. In wild life, their enemy mostly is human. Occasionally a python (Python reticulatus or Python molurus) or an endemic civet (Macrogalidia musschembroekii) will prey upon an infant anoa.

Because of increasing human population and the spread of cultivation, by the 1890's, the anoa had already begun to abandon the coastal areas of Sulawesi where it was once common. However, it was still widely distributed throughout northern Sulawesi in 1900. In 1937 it was still fairly common in the forested areas in Gorontalo, northern Sulawesi. Subsequently, increasing cultivation caused it to abandon the lowlands and retreat to remote mountainous areas. By 1966 a major decline had occurred, and it was found only sporadically as a severely threatened remnant in the undisturbed, swampy forests of northern Sulawesi. As of 1979, the anoa had declined significantly or disappeared altogether near many towns and villages (where it was heavily hunted), but healthy populations still occurred in large forest blocks.

Reasons for the anoa's decline include hunting for hide, horns and meat (it was rarely hunted by natives before the introduction of modern firearms); killing by the military; and the expansion of settlement, which has caused the anoas to retreat to more remote forest areas due to loss of habitat (e.g. due to draining of marshland) and to avoid human activity. The wild number of anoas is unknown. As of 1995, 110 anoas were in captivity. Unfortunately, anoas are not easy to breed in captivity. Inbred captive anoas are a problem and zoos work to diversify the gene pool.

Anoas have been legally protected in Indonesia since 1931. There are a number of protected areas on the island of Sulawesi, many of which are believed to contain anoas. However, these areas are not all well managed and the level of protection accorded to their wildlife is uncertain.

Rhyticeros cassidix

2005-06-28T03:15:00.000-07:00

This bird is among the largest hornbill species and is restricted to the Indonesian islands of Sulawesi and named for the large ridge along the top of its bill that is called a casque (kãsk). Although large, the casque is not heavy or cumbersome. It is not solid, but filled with air chambers. The male and female hornbills differ in coloration. Males have a red casque and a brownish red head and neck. The female is smaller, with a less significant yellow casque and a black head and neck. The large colorful bill in both birds is helpful in reaching fruit on distant branches.

Native Sulawesi and locally known as allo or rangkong is a shy bird, as big as a rooster, and lives in tall trees. It perches on tall trees like fig or trees that bear small fruits, which account for its main diet. Up to 85 percent of its diet are figs, which are available all year round, and rest is insects. In the wild, its diet consists of twelve different species of figs and they have been seen flying over 20 miles in one day in search of fruiting trees. The red-knobbed hornbill plays an important role in preserving the forest. The fruit's seeds do not crush during the digestion process and will emerge again with the bird's droppings. If the hornbill's droppings fall on the land, the seed will grow into a new tree.

Hornbills are known for their unique nesting behavior. They choose a tall tree with a large cavity near the top. The female will lay her eggs in the tree cavity. The entrance is then sealed with droppings and mud and leaving only a small slit to prevent predators (such as the giant civet (Macrogalidia muschenbrcoeki)) from attacking the eggs. It is important that the pair have a strong bond because the female is completely reliant on the male during this time. The male is extremely busy bringing foods to the nest through the slit and often it has been seen returning to the nest up to 20 times in one day. The female will remain enclosed in the nest cavity with the chicks until they are able to fly on their own. The breeding season for the red-knobbed hornbill is between July and September while for Sulawesi's dwarf hornbill it is between April and July.

Hornbills lack the small feathers that cover the base of flight feathers in most birds. The rush of air through their wings creates a whoosh sound when they fly. People belief that if you see a flock of red knobbed hornbills fly and scream in the sky, it means that rain is imminent.

Actually, Sulawesi has two species of hornbill. The other one is Sulawesi dwarf hornbill (oenelopides exarhatus). This hornbill has a smaller beak and body size. Black feathers cover the whole body (for both males and females). The male has a yellow head. This bird, which lives and feeds in the lower canopy, is more rarely sighted.

Besides Togean Island, Lore Lindu National Park, as one of Hornbill’s habitat. Unfortunately, like many other exotic birds elsewhere in Indonesia, the hornbill's population in the park is declining due to unchecked poaching, local environmentalists have reported. Indeed, illegal land clearing and logging which continue in many parts of the national park are threatening the priceless flora and fauna. As of 2001, the park has lost about 10 percent of its original 299,000 hectares.

At present, the magnificent bird is easily sighted in many parts of the national park. Among places that are their favorite to flock to are Kalimpaa lake and Lindu Lake, where you can see over a dozen red-knobbed hornbill flying across the lake, if you are lucky.

Pop Up: Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP)

2005-06-27T23:46:00.000-07:00

Similar to GDP measurement approaches, conceptually there are three approaches for measuring Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP), i.e.

Production approach,
Expenditure approach,
Income approach.

Production approach expresses GRDP as the total value of final goods and services produced by all production units in a region within a certain period (usually one year period). Production units are grouped as in the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC), which are: Agriculture; Mining and Quarrying; Manufacturing Industries; Electricity, Gas and Water Supply; Construction; Trade, Hotel and Restaurant; Transport and Communication; Financial, Ownership and Business Services; Services including government services.

Expenditure approach expresses GRDP as the total of final demand components, covering the consumption expenditure of households and private non profit institutions, government consumption, gross domestic fixed capital formation, increase in stock and net export within a certain period. Net export is the export minus import.

Income approach expresses GRDP as the total income by production factors engaged in the production process in a region. The income components of the production factors may take the form of wages or salaries, land rent, capital interest and profit margin. The profits include income tax and other direct taxes. In this definition, the GRDP also contains depreciation and net direct taxes.

Gross Regional Product (GRP): GRP is the sum of Gross Domestic Regional Product and the net factor income from abroad and from other regions. The net income from abroad and from other regions constitutes of all income of production factors (labor and capital) owned by residents and accrued from abroad and from other regions, minus similar payments made to non-residents in abroad and in other regions.

Source

Pop Up: Human Poverty Index (HPI)

2005-06-27T22:43:00.000-07:00

Poverty has traditionally been measured as a lack of income - but this is far too narrow a definition. Human poverty is a far more current concept that captures the many dimensions of poverty that exist in both poor and rich countries. The HPI-1 (Human Poverty Index for developing countries) measures deprivations in the same three aspects of human development as the HDI (longevity, life expectancy, and a decent standard of living). HPI-2 (Human Poverty Index for industrialized countries) includes, in addition to these dimensions, social exclusion.

HPI-1 (developing countries): deprivations in longevity are measured by the percentage of newborns not expected to survive to age 40. Deprivations in knowledge are measured by the percentage of adults who are illiterate. Deprivations in a decent standard of living are measured by three variables: the percentage of people without access to safe water, the percentage of people without access to health services, and the percentage of moderately and severely underweight children below the age of five.

Use of the Human Poverty Index

The HPI is used:

To focus attention on the most deprived people in a country, not on average national achievement.

1. The Human Poverty Indices focus directly on the number of people living in deprivation - presenting a very different picture from average national achievement. It also moves the focus of poverty debates away from concern about income poverty alone.

2. To highlight the presence of human poverty in every single country. High income per person is no guarantee of a poverty-free country. Even among the richest industrial countries, there is human poverty.

3. To guide national planning for poverty alleviation. Many National Human Development Reports now break down the HPI by district level or language group to identify the areas or social groups within the country most deprived in terms of human poverty. The results can be dramatic, creating national debate and helping to reshape policies.

Source

Pop Up: Human Development Index (HDI)

2005-06-27T22:17:00.000-07:00

The human development index (HDI) measures the average achievement of a country in basic human capabilities. The HDI indicates whether people lead a long and healthy life, are educated and knowledgeable and enjoy a decent standard of living. The HDI examines the average condition of all people in a country: distributional inequalities for various groups of society have to be calculated separately.

The HDI is a composite of three basic components of human development: longevity, knowledge and standard of living. Longevity is measured by life expectancy. Knowledge is measured by a combination of adult literacy (two-thirds weight) and mean years of schooling (one-third weight). Standard of living is measured by purchasing power, based on real GDP per capita adjusted for the local cost of living (purchasing power parity, or PPP).

How is the HDI used?

1. To capture the attention of policy makers, media and NGOs and to draw their attention away from the more usual economic statistics to focus instead on human outcomes. The HDI was created to re-emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth.

2. To question national policy choices - asking how two countries with the same level of income per person can end up with such different human development outcomes (HDI levels). For example, Viet Nam and Pakistan have similar levels of income per person, but life expectancy and literacy differ greatly between the two countries, with Viet Nam having a much higher HDI value than Pakistan. These striking contrasts immediately stimulate debate on government policies on health and education, asking why what is achieved in one country is far from the reach of another.

3. To highlight wide differences within countries, between provinces or states, across gender, ethnicity, and other socioeconomic groupings. Highlighting internal disparities along these lines has raised national debate in many countries.

Is the HDI enough to measure a country's level of development?

Not at all!

The concept of human development is much broader than what can be captured in the HDI, or any other of the composite indices in this Report (see gender-related development index, gender empowerment measure, and human poverty index). The HDI, for example, does not reflect political participation or gender inequalities. HDI and the other composite indices can only offer a broad proxy on the issues of human development, gender disparity, and human poverty. A fuller picture of a country's level of human development requires analysis of other human development indicators and information

UNDP; ADB

Pop Up: Babi Rusa

2005-06-23T04:27:00.000-07:00

Babirusas (Babyrousa babirussa), or 'pig-deer' are wild pig with curly tusks that are endemic to Sulawesi and the surrounding Sula and Togian islands. This strange looking pig belongs to the Suidae (pig family) and is the only member of the Babyrousa genus. These subspecies have different hair covering, hair color, and tusk and body sizes. Fossil studies seem to show that the babirusa may be more closely related to hippopotamuses than pigs.

Males are characterized by large, upward curving tusks which can grow up to 30cm in length. The upper canines actually grow up through the skin of its snout from the inside. Then they grow up and curl over towards the forehead, sometimes touching the snout again. The lower canines are also very long and protrude from the sides. The two sets of tusks give the appearance of the antlers of a deer. The function of these tusks, which are absent or reduced in size in females, is unclear although they may be used in fighting (the bottom tusk). The top tusks can't be used for foraging or as weapons because they are very fragile and loose in their sockets. Because they curve upwards towards the head, they are not used for digging as in other pigs.

Babirusas are smaller than domestic pigs. They are 2.8-3.6 feet in length, and 2.1-2.6 feet at shoulder height. The tail is 8-12 inches long and not twisted. It weighs from 95-220 pounds. It has a rounded body with almost hairless, bristly skin. The sparse hairs are yellowish in color. Their skin is gray to brown, with a lighter colored under belly. Their legs are thin and longer than on most pigs. Mature babirusas have large folds near their necks and bellies.

Babirusas are confined to tropical rainforest, and are often found near rivers. Although they have been observed in captivity, not a lot is known about their behavior in the wild. They are omnivorous, eating mainly fruit and plant material but also insect larvae, fungi and small mammals. Adult males tend to be solitary, whereas females live in groups including several adults and their young. Like other pig species, they wallow in mud to remove skin parasites. Babirusas also exhibit 'ploughing' behavior whereby they push their snouts into the earth, which is believed to be involved scent marking.

Even though it has relatively long span of life (24 years), habitat loss and hunting for meat are the two primary threats facing babirusas. Given their small litter size (females typically give birth to one or two infants); populations are particularly vulnerable to hunting by humans. Although hunting babirusas is illegal, small numbers are still sold in local markets in North Sulawesi, especially for ceremonial reason. Worse, in the past babirusa were kept by rulers in Sulawesi and given as gifts to visiting diplomats.

At this moment, Babirusas are listed by the IUCN as a vulnerable species. They are also protected under Indonesian wildlife law, making it illegal to poach, kill or trade babirusas. However, there are only thought to be around 5000 individuals left following illegal hunting and habitat loss over the last few decades.

In 1998, a captive breeding program was initiated with the aim of capturing 40 wild babirusas. The capture process was carefully planned to protect wild populations and was to involve trained vetinarians. However, before the capture program had officially begun, hunters and commercial dealers were given the false impression that there was a demand for capturing live babirusas. This led to illegal capture of babirusas in protected areas in addition to the trade in babirusa meat. Fortunately the Indonesian government stopped the trade in live babirusas, preventing further damage. At present, babirusas in captivity are thought to be in-bred (i.e. not genetically diverse) and in general there are doubts whether captive breeding is a useful conservation measure.

Pop Up: Sea Cow (Dugong Dugon)

2005-06-23T03:34:00.000-07:00

The Dugong is a large, up to 3m, grey brown bulbous animal with a flattened fluked tail, like that of a whale, no dorsal fin, paddle like flippers and distinctive head shape. The broad flat muzzle and mouth are angled down to enable ease of grazing along the seabed. Eyes and ears are small reflecting the animal's lack of reliance on these senses.

These sea cows also have an evolutionary link to elephants, but their closest living aquatic relatives are the Manatee, an aquatic mammal that lives in freshwater rivers and coastal waters of West Africa, the Caribbean, South America and the southern United States (Florida). Another close relative was Steller’s sea cow, previously found in the northern Pacific. It was hunted to extinction in the 1700s by sealers for its meat. It grew almost three times as long as the dugong and fed on large algae (kelp).

This vegetarian mammal shares their ocean habitat with other marine mammals such as dolphins, porpoises, and whales in mostly Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is now an endangered animal since it reproduces slowly -- females give birth every three to five years after the age of 10 -- but have a long life span up to 70 years. Worse, the Dugong is hunted by humans for its rare meat, blubber, oils, and hide. These harmless creatures get hit by boat propellers, and drown from getting caught in fish and shark nets.

Pop Up: Celebes Crested Macaque (Macaca Nigra)

2005-06-23T01:09:00.000-07:00

Celebes black macaques (also known as Yaki) are all black, with the exception of some white hair in the shoulder range. With a total body length of 45 to 60 cm and a weight of 7 to 10 kg, they are one of the smaller macaque species. It also has a short tail (only approximately 2 cm of stub), long hair that forms a pointed crest on the head, and high bony cheek ridges. Crested Black Macaque or the Black "Ape", is a smart monkey that lives in the northeast of Sulawesi as well as on smaller neighboring islands.

Celebes Crested Macaques are diurnal (active during daytime) rain-forest dwellers. They sleep and search for food in trees, but socialize and spend most of their time on the ground. They live in groups of 5 to 25 animals. Smaller groups have only a single male, while larger groups have up to four males. The females, however, always outnumber the males 4:1. Since young males must leave their birth group upon maturity, they sometimes form bachelor groups before they look for a connection to an existing mixed group. Communication consists of various sounds and gestures. For example, the presentation of the long eyeteeth while grimacing a clear threatening gesture.

These macaques live in family groups, usually led by a dominant female. In these groups, there are usually about three times as many females as males, and the females are permanent members of the groups, while the males will often switch from group to group. They are very social and will often spend much of the day grooming one another. Males are competitive, fighting with each other for dominance within the group.

Clearing of rain-forests and capturing as pets, represents distinct problems for this species. To protect this family, it is currently listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Pop Up: Tarsius

2005-06-22T04:32:00.000-07:00

Sulawesi forest contains perhaps the largest kingdom of Tarsius (an elongated tarsus bone), the smallest primate in the world. Its short body and round head are covered with a soft, velvety coat which is gray to gray-buff in color. Its tail is long, slender and covered in scales like those which are found on the tails of rats and mice. Its head-body length is 9.5-11 cm and its tail about 20-26 cm long. The tail of this species is naked except for the last half to third, which has long hair, and at the end there is a tuft of hair.

Their owl-like eyes, mobile ears, haunting songs, two grooming claws on each foot and nocturnal habits reinforce the tarsier's image as gremlins. These gremlins of the forest are found throughout Asia. But T. dianae, T. spectrum, T. pelengensis, T. pumilus, and T. sangirensis are found only in Sulawesi.

This tiny Mammalian lacks a tapetum lucidum in its eyes, just like other nocturnal animals. And it has a special adaptation in his neck vertebrae that helps to turn his head 180 degrees to overcome its inability of eye movements. With its relatively small upper canine, it has a dental formula of 2:1:3:3 on the upper jaw and 1:1:3:3 on the lower jaw.

Tarsius spectrum is crepuscular (active in the twilight) and nocturnal. It is famous for its leaping and cross gaps abilities of up to 6 m (20 ft).

The basic group of Tarsius is made up of the mated pair and their offspring. However they sleep in groups and also found in polygynous groups. In polygynous groups all adult females of the group give birth. Pairs are territorial, chasing other co-specifics out of their home range. Females will stay in their groups until they are adults, while males will emigrate when they are still juveniles. Infants stay in the tree until they are ready to come out, which is usually between the ages of 3 to 6 weeks.

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Pop Up: Raja Laut

2005-06-22T02:57:00.000-07:00

Virtually unique in the animal kingdom, the fabulous Coelacanth ("see-la-kanth", meaning "hollow spine" in Greek) is a species of fish and represents the oldest lineage of living fish known to date. The coelacanths were believed to have been extinct since the end of the Cretaceous period (about 65 million years ago) — until a live specimen turned up off the east coast of South Africa in 1938. Today they can be found in the Comoros, Sulawesi (Indonesia), Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar and the St. Lucia Marine Protected Area in South Africa.

On July 30 1998, a Coelacanth was caught in a deep-water shark net by local fishermen off the volcanic island of Manado Tua in northern Sulawesi, Indonesia. This is about 10 000 km east of the Western Indian Ocean Coelacanth population. The fishermen brought the fish to the house of American biologist Mark Erdmann who along with his wife Arnaz had seen a specimen in the outdoor markets the previous September.

When the Coelacanth from Sulawesi was first documented, the only obvious difference between it and the Coelacanth from the Comoros Islands was the color. The Comoros Coelacanth is renowned for its steel blue color, whereas fish from the Sulawesi population were reported to be brown. DNA reports indicate that the newly discovered Indonesian population is a new species of coelacanth. In 1999 it was described as a new species, Latimeria menadoensis by Pouyaud, Wirjoatmodjo, Rachmatika, Tjakrawidjaja, Hadiaty and Hadie.

The "discovery" of a new species of Coelacanth in Sulawesi, opens up the possibility that Coelacanths may be more widespread and abundant than was previously assumed. New populations recently discovered off north Sulawesi, Indonesia and Sodwana Bay, South Africa may lead to new discoveries, as well as the possibility of a severe decline similar to that seen off the Comores.

Of course, Latimeria was not really "discovered." The local fishing inhabitants of both Sulawesi, Indonesia and the Comoros Islands were well aware of the species long before the scientific community got involved. Fishermen in both locations even had pre-existing names for the fish. The Comoros Islanders refer to Latimeria as gombessa. In north Sulawesi, they are known by the name raja laut, or "king of the sea."

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Pop up: Maleo Bird

2005-06-22T00:54:00.000-07:00

Environmentalists in Sulawesi are sounding the alarm for the dwindling population of Maleo, the big bird endemic to the island.

As of June 2002 they have noted that the Maleo has disappeared in 44 places where they used to be abundant.

Unlike most birds, Maleo (Macrocephalon maleo) has the size of a chicken with brownish-black feathers with a prominent medium-length tail. This striking bird has a distinctive bony, dark casque on its crown, a yellowish face, and a bare pale bill. As its alternative name, Maleo Megapode suggests, it has characteristically large feet. The thighs are black, and the belly white, with pink hues on the breast. It usually flies from one tree to another, and just like a chicken, it seeks seeds and legumes on the ground.

This rare bird is usually silent but, especially around nesting sites, it can emit quite extraordinary noises. These include loud braying and, when in disputes, a duck-like quacking.

Maleo birds used to live in nearly all regions of Sulawesi. However, the places where the Maleo used to be found are now in a state of neglect. In Tatongko Dua Saudara, North Sulawesi, for instance, the population of Maleo was reported to have dropped by 80 percent due to uncontrolled egg collection, an activity which has been going on for decades.

A research conducted recently by the Jambata Foundation, a non-governmental organization focusing on Maleo protection, showed that out of 46 locations where Maleo could be found in the western part of Central Sulawesi and the northern part of South Sulawesi, Maleo's existence in 11 sites were considered "threatened" and "very threatened" in 16 sites.

Palu-based Jambata members also reported that another 44 Maleo habitats have disappeared in the last two decades. In the remaining sites, the birds were still considered safe, simply because they were located in the Lore Lindu National Park.

Another unique thing about Maleo birds are the way it lays eggs. Although it lives in forests and mountains about 1,200 m above sea level, it will find a lowland area to lay its eggs (usually a sandy beach or a sandy river bank). These places must get enough sunshine to warm the eggs.

Although a Maleo is as big as a chicken, its egg is the size of an adult's fist. A Maleo egg is the same as five to six chicken eggs, or weighs about 250 grams. The eggs are kept in warm sand about 60 cm - 70 cm underground. When the mother bird lays her eggs, the male bird will keep watch from a tree and immediately signal its "spouse" in case of danger.

The legs of a pair of Maleo birds are strong enough to allow them to move a cubic meter of sand when making a hole to lay the eggs. In the process, both of the "parents" take turns digging the eggs, including other holes as decoys to keep their eggs from being discovered by predators. That's why those digging for Maleo eggs often find only empty holes.

A pair of Maleo birds can only have, on average, about seven to eight eggs a year, although research data showed at least one pair was able to produce 12. The egg-laying periods are usually in April, October and November. The eggs are usually laid about a week apart. After being warmed by the hot sand, the eggs will hatch between 35 and 75 days after being laid. After the egg is hatched, the infant Maleo chicks will have to make its way up through the sand, to find food and deal with potential dangers on its own.

Til this day there is still no conclusive understanding in the scientific community revealing precisely how the infant Maleo gets out of the sand.

Some locals claim that Maleo always places its eggs in an upright position and when the egg hatches, the small Maleo will "cut" around the middle of the egg and use the nearly conical shaped top end of the egg as piercing shield/umbrella to plow its way up through the sand. If the shield/umbrella is broken on the way, the baby Maleo will never reach the surface.

At the Lore Lindu National Park, Maleo prefer laying eggs in sandy riverbanks. The locations are safer there than in other places, but there are still a number of poachers who enter the park. In fact, in Bakiriang, Pantai Toili, Banggai regency; Sausu Piore, Donggala regency; and Tanjung Matop, Buol Regency in Central Sulawesi, threat comes from government officials who visit captive breeding sites and take the eggs as "souvenirs" for their bosses. Worse, we still can find these eggs for Rp. 2,500 to Rp 5,000 (about 3 – 6 dollar) each in Buol or Toili market sold by forestry officers.

No wonder that this distinctive Megapode was recently up listed to Endangered because it has undergone a very rapid decline, which is projected to continue based on levels of exploitation and declines in extent and quality of habitat, combined with the fact that it has a small population, which is continuing to undergo severe fragmentation.

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Pop Up: Tana Toraja Funeral

2005-06-21T21:30:00.000-07:00

Rambu Solo’, is a funeral procession in Toraja society. It means: the Setting Sun or Smoke Descending rituals which are associated with the south and west, with darkness, night, and death. Generally, there are two of them: one immediately after a death and elaborate, second funeral after preparations. This ritual procession held to send the spirit to the Puya, the afterworld, properly to avoid misfortune to its family. The souls of the dead can only go to Puya when the entire death ritual has been carried out. Without proper funeral rites the spirit of the deceased will cause misfortune to its family. The funeral sacrifices, ceremonies and feats also impress the gods with the importance of deceased, so that the spirit can intercede effectively on behalf of living relatives.

They believe the soul of the deceased will ride the souls of the slaughtered buffaloes and pigs to heaven. The buffalo has traditionally been a symbol of wealth and power - even land could be paid for buffaloes. After the guest display their presents of pigs and buffaloes, the traditional Mabadong song and dance is performed. This is a ceremonial re-enactment of the cycle of human life and the life story of the deceased. It is also farewell to the soul of the deceased, and relays the hope that the soul will arrive in the afterworld safely. Funerals can be spread out over several days and involve hundreds of guests (and many tourists).

In Toraja, a dead person is called 'Tomate'. It presides over the funeral from the high-roofed tower constructed at one and of the field. At a funeral, bamboo pavilions for the family and guests are constructed around a field. There are several arcs of groups of roughly hewn stone slabs around villages, and each stone possibly represents a member of the noble class who lived and died there.

There is also statues made for Tomate that stand at the mouth of the cave and looks out from a balcony near the burial caves. This is to guard and watch over the families and friends they have been left behind. The faces of these Tau Tau made similar with each Tomates.

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The People

2005-06-11T01:03:00.000-07:00

Sulawesi has been inhabited for almost 30,000 years. Traces of the first settlements can still be found in old caves near Maros in the chalk hills about 30 kms north-east of Makassar, and the finds include some Stone Age tools.

In 2002, Sulawesi's population was 15,445,153 and the highest population density was in South Sulawesi with 8,025,567. In 1938 the population of Makassar, though growing, was still under 100,000. The town was described by writer Joseph Conrad as "the prettiest and perhaps, cleanest looking of all the towns in the islands". By the 1950s, however, the population had increased to such a degree that many of the historic sites had been swallowed by modern development and today you have to look very carefully to find the few remains of the city's once splendid history.

Approximately 80% of the people of Sulawesi practice Islam, 17% practice Christianity, and small groups practice traditional religions. Islam is dominant in the central, south-east, and southern provinces. Most Christians are in the north, as well as in the district of Poso in Central Sulawesi and Tana Toraja in the south. While they are mostly Moslem, Buginese, Makassarese, and Mandarese; they still cling on to some older, pre-Islamic habits. Almost similar with Christian in Tana Toraja who retain animistic beliefs from Megalithic era.

Sulawesi is home to a number of ethnic groups including the Bugis, Makassarese and Mandarese of the southern coasts, the Toraja of the highlands, and the Minahasans of the north.

In the south, the people are Malayan, except for some indigenous ethnic groups in the interior. The largest ethnic group is the Makassarese-Bugis, who are renowned as seafaring traders.

Buginese (or Bugis) live mostly in the central area of the peninsula, among that the remote and fertile plain between Pinrang and Watampone. The Bugis people of southern Sulawesi are bearers of an ancient maritime heritage that for millennia supported the spread of Austronesian peoples throughout the archipelago. The Bugis still uphold what is arguably the largest and most vital commercial sailing tradition in the world.

The ships of the Buginese, Makassarese, and Mandarese, the largest sailing populations of Indonesia, are remarkably good. The excellent craftsmanship proves that they can still make heavy ships from wood only. The many different fish-and sailboats which sail through the harbor of Makassar give a unique charm to the city. From the wide boulevard you can see a big diversity of traditional ships. Under the many different types of crafts are the perahu phinisi, the elegant schooner which has become the symbol of South-Sulawesi; the pantorani, with two square sails, which is used to catch flying fish; the lambo, a freighter with one meast; the balolang and many kinds of lepa lepa, sailing boats.

The Makasarese has close cultural relations with the Buginese. Their habitat is generally less fertile (except the very productive soil around Maros) and they depend more on the sea for life support.

The Mandarese are culturally close to the Buginese as well. Most of them live in the less hospitable northwestern part of the peninsula. In contrary to the more prosperous Buginese and Makasarese populations, which have better soil, the Mandarese never developed extensive and centralized kingdoms, but they lives in relative autonomous villages. Together with the Torajan, the Mandarese live more centrally. Now Mandar is part of the newly established province of West Sulawesi (October 2004), while Toraja still belongs to South Sulawesi.

The Mandar people have long been famous for their silk sarongs, lipa sa'be, and the Toraja for their woven cotton blankets. On the basis of its cultural elements Mamasa, a high place of the regency of Polmas (Poliwali Mamasa), is included in West Toraja. There is now a trekking route through the spectacular hills between Bittung and Mamasa.

The Toraja inhabit the northern part of the peninsula, where they are scattered over a large and hard terrain. They are divided in several sub-groups, among them the Sa'dan, Rongkong, Seko, Mamasa and Mangki. Most of them live in the central highlands (Tana Toraja), while rest live in the cities of the lowlands. Because their area is mountainous, the Toraja have insufficient space for wet rice agriculture to feed the population; many live from the cultivation of coffee, rice and sago.

Known for their magnificent burial ceremonies on cliffs or in hanging graves, the Toraja (To ~ people, i-raja ~ from above, highland, west, big) believe that their forefathers descended from heaven in a boat some twenty generations ago. The majority of the people still follow an ancestral cult called "Aluk Todolo", which governs all their traditional ceremonies. Their ancestor worship includes elaborate death and after life ceremonies, which are essentially great feasts.

They have two basic types of ceremony: Rambu Tuka and Rambu Solo. Both of these rituals are still practiced and are very important. The Rambu Tuka (Rising Sun or Smoke Ascending) rites are associated with the north and east, with joy and life. They include rituals relating to birth, marriage, health, the home, the community, and rice.

The Rambu Solo (Setting Sun or Smoke Descending) rites are associated with the south and west, with darkness, night, and death. In these rites buffaloes are sacrificed in the final death ceremony, after which the remains of the deceased are placed in a coffin and interred in caves hollowed out in high cliffs. The mouth of the cave is guarded by lifelike statues, looking out from a balcony. As death is so important -- it is when the soul is released -- burials are elaborate and accompanied by days of feasting. Rock graves are also a form of burial. A strict social hierarchy regarding burial gifts and protocol is observed in the villages.

In the north are the Minahassan, also known as the Menadonese. Wallace described these people as different from related tribes: "The inhabitants of Minahasa differ much from those of all the rest of the island, and in fact from any other people in the Archipelago. They are of light-brown or yellow tint, often approaching the fairness of a European; of a rather short stature, stout and well-made; of an open and pleasing countenance, more or less disfigured as age increases by projecting cheek-bones; and with the usual long, straight, jet-black hair of the Malayan races. In some of the inland villages where they may be supposed to be the purest race, both men and women are remarkably handsome"(Alfred Russel Wallace, "The Malay Archipelago" p. 185).

In this volcanic area, people love music, and they are famed throughout the country for their vocal skills, displayed to best advantage during their rituals, celebrations and gatherings.

The existence of an ancient civilization in North Sulawesi is shown by the presence of the waruga stone sarcophagi, the oldest reportedly dating back to 900 AD. North Sulawesi and the Minahassan people there never developed any large empire. In 670 AD the leaders of the various tribes, who all spoke different languages, met by a stone known as Watu Pinabetengan. There they founded a federation of independent states, who pledged to stand together and fight any outside enemies if they were attacked. The word Minahassan is derived from Mina'esa, meaning "unification of the tribes". This unification was necessary to withstand their mutual enemy the Bolaang Mongondow. It was not until 1693 that they were able to finally defeat the Bolaang Mongondow.

Overview

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Extremely irregular in shape, island of Sulawesi comprises four large peninsulas separated by three gulfs—Tomini in the north-east, Tolo in the south-east, and Bone in the south. It lies in the middle of the Malay Archipelago between the islands of Kalimantan to the west, Maluku to the east, Flores to the south and Timor to the south-east, and shares a border with the Philippines to the north. Sulawesi’s wet and dry seasons vary across the different peninsulas, but (except for the northern peninsula) the heaviest rainfall usually occurs between November and April during the western monsoon. In the sheltered centre of the island is the semi-arid Palu Valley, with an annual rainfall of less than 600 mm, while the mountains can receive up to 4000 mm.

The name Sulawesi is a local pronunciation of the Portuguese name for the island, Celebes, and came into common use after Independence, but the exact origin of the name Celebes is not clear. The Portuguese, the first Europeans on the island, called it Ponto dos Celebres which means point of the notorious/renowned. This might refer to the many pirates that were sailing in Sulawesi (and Indonesian) waters those days, or to the strong Monsoon winds which caused many ships to sink.

A local legend says that when the Portuguese first landed on the island, the captain of the ship met a man who was busy working as a blacksmith. The captain asked the man - in Portuguese - what the name of the island was. The blacksmith, not understanding, thought the captain had asked him what he was doing, and answered "sele besi", which means "heat iron" or "work with iron". The captain was satisfied with the answer and registered Selebesi as name of the island in his logbook. Some invoke a mountain called Kalabat to explain the name. Meanwhile, a more modern legend says the name Sulawesi is derived from the two words sula (island) and besi (iron), referring to the rich sources of iron on the island.

Sulawesi (formerly Celebes) is the fourth largest island of Indonesia and the eleventh largest in world. It covers an area of 189,040 km² and is one of the most forested and mountainous islands in the region. As a unique rain forest lying on the Wallace line, Sulawesi is rich in varieties of flora and fauna. It also has the highest level of mammal endemism in Asia and is a major component of the Wallace Biodiversity Hotspot as designated by Conservation International. For the time being Sulawesi is still the most forested island in Indonesia. It has many lakes, of which Towuti is the largest and Tondano, with its waterfall, is considered the most beautiful.

Sulawesi also boasts eleven active volcanoes, and among them are Mt. Rantemario (11,286 ft/3,440 m) and Mt. Rantekombola (11,335 ft/3,455 m) that are also the island’s highest peaks. Eruptions have occurred as recently as 1991, while the eruption of Awu in the Sangihe Talaud archipelago in 1966 killed over 7,300 people. Parts of southern Sulawesi are largely infertile due to the high concentration of heavy metals in the soils. With a wealth of natural resources -- minerals and high-quality woods -- Sulawesi is now one of the richest regions in Indonesia.

Sulawesi comprises of six separate provinces: South Sulawesi (capital: Makassar), North Sulawesi (capital: Manado), Gorontalo (capital: Gorontalo), Central Sulawesi (capital: Palu), South-East Sulawesi (capital: Kendari), and West Sulawesi (capital: Majene), which was established in October 2004 as the Indonesia’s 33rd province.

South Sulawesi is the largest province in Sulawesi while Gorontalo is the smallest. The most populous city on the island, Makassar (pop. 1.1 million) is frequently referred to as the 'Gateway to Eastern Indonesia.'

By the 16th century, Makassar had become Sulawesi's major port and the centre of the powerful Gowa and Tallo sultanates, which between them set up a series of 11 fortresses and strongholds and a fortified sea wall which extended along the coast. When Dutch came in the early 17th century, everything changed dramatically. Their first objective was to seize hegemony over the spice trade, and their first move was to capture the fort of Makassar in 1667, which they rebuilt and renamed Fort Rotterdam. From this base they managed to destroy the strongholds of the Sultan of Gowa who was then forced to live on the outskirts of Makassar. The character of this old trading centre changed as a walled city known as Vlaardingen grew, a place where slaves were at the mercy of the ruthless foreigners.

With few sites of historical and artistic importance, the charm of the region lies in well-kept towns, impressive traditional beliefs and activities, and the extensive coastline where master shipbuilders construct massive wooden schooners, using only simple hand-tools and designs passed down by rote through the centuries.

About ?

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Welcome to Sulawesi GIS
A web-based Geographic Information System

Thank you for visiting Sulawesi GIS, a project done by Yayasan Inovasi Pemerintahan Daerah (YIPD) also known as Center for Local Governance Innovation (CLGI).

The first version of the Sulawesi GIS contains:

1. Bio-physical Data including: delineation of watersheds; forest-related data such as priority watersheds, percentage of forest cover, parks, etc.; water-related data, such as mapping of water bodies (streams, rivers and lakes); biodiversity data; environmental data and information.

2. Socio-economic, development and poverty-related data, such as demographics, agricultural statistics, consumption and expenditure, also including data on Millennium Development Goal indicators or proxies to the extent available

3. Administrative boundaries, including province, kabupaten, kecamatan and desa

4. Governance and local policy/planning information, including narrative documents

5. Infrastructure map, including roads, ports, airports, rail-links

6. Donor map, displaying the location of both current and planned donor programs on the island.

GIS lets the user access, appreciate, decipher, and contextualize information on the basis of interactive maps and in this way improve their decision-making tools and analysis capabilities.

You also can create a map, generate a report, read and download Kota (cities) and Kabupaten (districts) Information Cards, and use GIS data and information on this site, or download the data to use in your own system.

Standard Web GIS tools such as Zoom, Zoom Area, Pan, Print and Measure a Distance or an Area are also available.

This virtual library can be accessed anywhere at anytime and updated regularly together with its reader-friendly supplementary texts here: icon GIS.

Please use the navigation bar above to check out the different features and information offered through Sulawesi GIS