Indonesia counts its islands before it's too late

PULAU AYER, Indonesia, May 16 (Reuters) Indonesia has so many islands it has not been able to count them all and is having a hard time finding names for them.

From coral-fringed atolls to jungle-clad volcanoes thrusting up from the ocean, its chains of islands sprinkled along the equator make up the world's biggest archipelago.

Officially there are about 17,000 islands, but that number may drop as one minister fears hundreds of islands might vanish because of rising sea levels from global warming.

So, before it's too late, the country aims to complete its first detailed survey this year, spurred on by worries ranging from sovereignty disputes to climate change.

Even near the capital, there is confusion over the numbers.

Pulau Ayer, or Water Island, is one of a string of islands just north of Jakarta. This tiny dot of an island is part of a chain called Pulau Seribu, or Thousand Islands. Depending on who you ask, there are between 100 and 145 islands.

''How can you manage the islands if you don't know the identity of the islands?'' questioned Alex Retraubun, a government official in charge of small islands and leader of the survey.

''So this agenda is quite important, quite strategic, to smooth your policies in the future,'' he added, speaking in his office in the ministry of marine and fisheries in central Jakarta, with a large map of Indonesia pinned to the wall.

The issue has become a hot topic after Indonesia upset neighbouring Singapore recently by banning sand exports to the city state, blaming sand mining for literally wiping some of its islands off the map.

The government says it has 17,504 islands, but Retraubun said not all officials are clear about the numbers.

ISLAND-HOPPING ''If you pay attention to our important persons' speeches sometimes the number of islands varies with the speakers. We really need to make sure we have a definitive number.'' Retraubun was born on a small island in the remote Moluccas region of eastern Indonesia. He went on to study coastal management at Britain's Newcastle University.

His team is on the last leg of a three-year project to visit every island in Indonesia. Going to the islands, he says, is needed to ensure something is actually an island rather than a clump of mangroves partly submerged at high tide.

According to the UN convention on the Law of the Sea, an island is a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is still exposed at high tide.

The survey team takes the coordinates of an island it visits, notes what is there, whether it is occupied and, if so, what is the makeup of the community. The team interviews the inhabitants.

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