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It was the Spaniard Ynigo Ortiz de Retes who, in 1545, gave the name Nueva
Guinea to a strip of land on the north coast of the world's second largest
island (after Greenland), which is now half Indonesian, half Papua New Guinean
territory. Papua, the western half of the island, is Indonesia's biggest
province of about 410,000 square kilometers, representing almost 21 percent of
the country's total land area. More than 75 percent of the land is covered by
dense tropical forests, with only about 1.5 million people, with an average
population density of 2.8 persons per square kilometer, the lowest in
Indonesia. Jayapura, the neat provincial capital on a hillside overlooking the
bay, is 3,520 kilometers away from Jakarta.
Papua is a land of exceptional natural grandeur. Its jungles are among the
wildest, most impenetrable in the world. Eternal snow capped mountain ridges
more than 5,000 meters high, with walls plunge hundreds of meters down onto
floors filled with small glacier lakes. It has scenic beaches in abundance as
well as immense stretches of marshlands. Cool grassy meadows lie at the foot
of the towering mountains. Rivers cut through dark forests until their
sluggish, crocodile infested mouths disgorge the water into the sea.
The highest peak of the central mountain range is Puncak Jayawijaya (5,500
meters). Second and third are Gunung Trikora (5,160 meters) and Gunung Yamin
(5,100 meters), respectively. The biggest lake is Paniai, followed in order of
declining size by the lakes Ronbenbai and Sentani, both in the vicinity of
Jayapura, and Anggigita near Manokwari.
On the basis of physical features and differences in language, customs,
artistic expression and other aspects of culture, the indigenous people of
Papua are distinguished into about 250 sub-groups, although they all belong to
the Melanesian race, and are related to the people inhabiting the islands
along the southern rim of the Pacific. The Negritos are believed to have
settled on the island first, probably some 30,000 years ago, followed by the
Melanesians.
The people of the central highlands still maintain their ancestral customs
and traditions, and are virtually untouched by alien influences. Most of the
changes have so far taken place among the coastal people, who are being
subjected to ever increasing contacts with the world outside. This process of
change is being accelerated by the work of missionaries, who have been working
for many decades among the local populations. The people of the north and west
are mostly Protestants, while those of the south and of the hinterland around
Enarotali are Roman Catholics. Those around Fakfak and the Raja Ampat Islands
are mostly Moslem. Animism is still practiced by isolated tribes in various
parts of the province.
Although Papua is famed for its Bird of Paradise, the province's fauna is
not particularly rich. Almost all the animals here are of the Australian fauna
type. Copper, oil, timber and sea products like fish and shrimps are among the
province's main products. |
A lake created by a fault in the earths' crust
Lake Sentani, near Jayapura at the northeastern extremity of Papua, lies at an
elevation of 73 m in a fault-controlled depression mainly in Mesozoic mafic
and ultramafic rocks of the Cyclops Ophiolite Belt. It is bounded by the
Cyclops Mountains block to the north and the lower-standing terrain of the New
Guinea fold thrust belt to the south. An irregularly shaped body with
approximate maximum dimensions of 28 km (E-W) by 19 km (N-S) and a surface
area of 10,400 ha, Lake Sentani is by far the largest of the Papua lakes. It
is fed by a catchment area of about 600 km2 and has one outlet only, via the
Jafuri and Tami rivers to the Pacific Ocean near the Papua New Guinea border.
The lake is divisible into three main sectors with maximum recorded depths of
7 to 52 meters. Average annual rainfall around the lake is about 2 meters and
lake level fluctuates about 0.4 m with seasonal variation in inflow. The lake
is widely believed to have evolved by the tectonic damming and uplift of an
arm of the sea, but such a connection has not been demonstrated.
Because of its proximity to the provincial capital and the large population
around it, Sentani is the best studied of Papua lakes.
The most recent survey recorded 33 species of fish, of which 12 are
indigenous, 8 anadromous and 13 introduced. Surveys over a 1 year period have
shown an increase in introduced species but the impact on the total fish
population has not been documented. Sawfish (Pristis microdon) up to 3 m or
more were well known in the lake until the Seventies and are a common motif in
traditional Sentani art, but appear to have become extinct. Fish are
extensively raised in ponds and cages around the perimeter of the lake and the
introduction of species (particularly carp and tilapia) has been both
accidental and intentional.
Many of the Sentani people, who inhabit the islands, perimeter and environs of
the lake, still have a traditional subsistence economy based on fishing and
sago harvesting. This has been sustainable for centuries but local reports
suggest that catch yields have diminished in recent years. Whether this is a
result of overfishing (as a result of population growth and/or market
pressure), pollution or introduction of foreign species is not established.
Many of the residents occupy dwellings built on posts over the lake, which
thus serves as a depository for sewage, leading to locally high coliform
counts but also to nutrient enrichment. Water hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes),
introduced since the early Seventies, has become a major plant pest and may be
contributing to decline of some species. Much of the mountainous terrain
between the north shore of the lake and the ocean falls within the Cyclops
Strict Nature Reserve.
A major sustainable development issue for the inhabitants of the lake and
surroundings is the existing proposal to build a hydroelectric generating
facility, by means of a dam on the Jafuri River to divert the lake drainage
eastward through a canal to a power station and thence to an outlet at the sea
in Yotefa Bay near Jayapura. Several feasibility and environmental impact
studies have yet to totally define the cost/benefit consequences of this
project. |
