Bird's Head Peninsula
Geographical location
The Vogelkop (also bird's head or Doberai Peninsula, Indonesian Semenanjung Kepala Burung or Semenanjung Doberai, English Bird 's Head Peninsula ) is a peninsula in the north west of New Guinea in the Indonesian province of Papua Barat. Your Dutch name, the earlier Dutch New Guinea belonging peninsula due to the shape of New Guinea, which is reminiscent of the shape of a sitting bird. The peninsula is identified in this analysis as a head.
Geography
The southeastern corner of the peninsula on the Cenderawasih Bay (formerly Geelvink Bay ) is part of the Marino- Teluk Cenderawasih National Park. While the coastal regions are traversed in the Southwest flat moist and swampy areas, the north-east of the mountains is determined. The highest elevation is also Vogelkop or also called Gunung Mebo 3100 m high mountain.
Most important places are Manokwari, Sorong, Bintuni and Ransiki. In Sorong and Bintuni there are oil deposits.
The peninsula in the South Bay is the limiting Bentuni with 4352 km ² world 's largest mangrove swamp and also the largest mangrove maze of earth. It was here from 2005 to 2009 under the direction of the mammoth BP Tangguh project for the promotion of 7.6 million tons of liquefied natural gas with an investment of $ 3 billion. 2002 promoted Indonesia 23 million tons and was thus among the world leaders.
Languages
On the Vogelkop peninsula both Austronesian languages and Papuan languages are spoken, the latter group represents the vast majority. Adding to the northwest located Raja Ampat Islands ( German Four Kings ) and the offshore island Meoswar (or Waar ) should be spoken on the Vogelkop over 30 different languages. The geographical distribution of languages (as well as elsewhere in New Guinea ) reflects the different waves colonization of the island contrary: as the seafaring Austronesians 3000-4000 years ago reached New Guinea, the interior of the island was already inhabited by Papuan groups. The newcomers settled down, however, mainly on the coast and on offshore islands.
The Austronesian languages on the Vogelop Peninsula include the spoken to the Raja Ampat Islands languages in the Northwest (including ace on the north west coast, east of Sorong ), Wandamen in the southeast at the "neck" of the bird in the Bintuni region and Meoswar on a barrier island in the southeast. Added to eastern varieties of Indonesian (English Papuan Malay ), which are now spoken in all settlements and larger towns, the old regional lingua franca Biak in the area of Manokwari, as well as other regional languages which have been introduced by migrants from various regions of West Papua.
The spoken on the Vogelkop Peninsula Papua New languages can be summarized under the term West Papua languages , however, indicating no genetic relationship, but rather serves as a collective term for a particular geographical language area (to which usually also the Moluccas with Halmahera and the Timor- Alor - pantar group be expected. ) phylogenetic classification of Papuan languages is not yet determined partially concluded. Are common Hein after worm McElhanon and Voorhoeve the South Bird 's Head languages counted in the southwest of the Trans - New Guinea Vogelkops to phylum, by far the largest non- Austronesian language family in New Guinea. Other postulated language families are the Western Bird's -head languages in the west, the East - Bird's -head languages Meyah and Sougb and the Hatam - Mansim family in the east, and the unclassified languages Maybrat, Abun and Mpur inland of the peninsula.
Coral Reef Raja Ampat
A quick survey of the coral reefs of Raja Ampat Islands ( also Raja Ampat district ) on the western tip of the peninsula Vogelkop by Conservation International 2002 turned out to be located here one of the richest coral reefs in the world still in good condition. Within a short time in 1074 fish species were found. Gerald Allen recorded the record, 284 different types to include in a single dive. The region has the world's highest number of hard coral species for an area of comparable size. Approximately 75 % of the world's known coral species are here. A total of 488 species of hard corals were identified. 13 of 35 other species are probably new to science. It is expected that after a thorough investigation Raja Ampat leaves the previous leader of the biodiversity of coral reefs, Milnebucht in Papua New Guinea and Maumerebucht on the island of Flores, Indonesia behind. The ten times larger Australian Great Barrier Reef has significantly fewer species. The area is located in the center of the so-called Coral Triangle, which includes the Philippines, parts of Indonesia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The biggest hazard is due to dynamite fishing and cyanide fishing, which are less exercised by local fishermen, but fishermen from the surrounding area.