ABSTRACT
The Special Province (Daerah Provinsi) of Papua, on the island of New Guinea (Papua) is the easternmost territory of the Republic of Indonesia, occupying the western half of the lush, tropical island of Papua, which it shares with the independent nation of Papua New Guinea. New Guinea is the second largest island in the world after Greenland. Historically, Indonesian Papua has been known by various names: West New Guinea, Dutch or Netherlands New Guinea, West Irian (Irian Barat), Irian Jaya and, from 1 January 2000, Papua. Currently, the Indonesian part of the island is divided into two provinces, Papua, which still accounts for three-quarters of the territory and of the population, and West Papua (Papua Barat—from its creation in 2003 until 2007 the smaller province was called West Irian Jaya, Irian Jaya Barat). The two provinces of Indonesian Papua together cover 416,060 sq km, or 22% of the total landmass of Indonesia. Even after the bifurcation of West Papua from the main province, Papua remained by far the largest province in the country (itself accounting for 17%) and West Papua the fifth largest. The distance between the city of Sorong (West Papua) in the west and Jayapura in the east is 1,200 km, and between Jayapura in the north to Merauke in the south 736 km. The Papuan coastline is dotted with smaller islands, making the territorial waters off the coast of Indonesian Papua cover about 228,000 sq km.
