The Sula Islands are a group of islands in North Maluku

North Maluku

North Maluku is a province of northeastern Indonesia. It covers the northern part of the Maluku Islands, which are split between it and the province of Maluku. Maluku province used to cover the entire group...

 in Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

. Its three main islands are Mangole

Mangole Island

Mangole is a large island in the Sula Islands, which again are part of Maluku Islands in Indonesia. It is located at , east of Taliabu Island and north of Sanana Island. About 38,000 people live on the island of Mangole. Its economy is dominated by the timber industry.- Notes : from BBC News, 30...

, Sanae

Sanana Island

Sanana is an island, part of Sula Islands which is part of Maluku Islands in Indonesia. It is also the name of that island's largest settlement, home to the Dutch era fort Benteng De Verlachting....

 (Sulabesi/Xullabesi) and Taliabu

Taliabu

Taliabu is a large island in the Sula Islands, which again are part of the Maluku Islands in Indonesia. It is located at , west of Mangole Island and Sanana Island....

, with smaller islands Lifamatola and Seho. It is administered as Kepulauan Sula Regency (Kabupaten Kepulauan Sula). Its area is 9,632 km² and population 108,015 (2000 census).
Pre-Indonesian Independence saw the Sula also known as the Xulla Islands, with Taliabo as Xulla Taliabo, Sanana as Xulla Bessi, and Mangola as Xulla Mangola.

Subdivisions

Administratively the islands are divided into 19 districts (kecamatan), expanded from an original six:

• Lede
• Mangoli Barat
• Mangoli Tengah
• Mangoli Selatan
• Mangoli Timur
• Mangoli Utara
• Mangoli Utara Timur
• Sanana
• Sanana Utara
• Sula Besi Barat
• Sula Besi Selatan
• Sula Besi Tengah
• Sula Besi Timur
• Taliabu Barat
• Taliabu Barat Laut
• Taliabu Selatan
• Taliabu Timur
• Taliabu Timur Selatan
• Taliabu Utara

History

The Dutch built a fort on Sanana in 1652. Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist...

 visited the islands during an ornithological expedition in 1862.

Economy

According to government data Sula Islands District's food crops include vegetables, groundnuts, cassava, sweet potatoes, durian, mangosteen and mango. As of 2005 the area of agriculturally active land was 24743.56 hectares with production amounting to 33,608.62 tons per year. Taliabu-Sanana District is the main producer of cloves, nutmeg, cocoa, copra and other coconut products. Fishery production is very diverse with and estimated sustainable potential of 40273.91 tonnes per year of which only 22.8 percent is currently exploited. Forestry is considered a potential industry with the natural forest-based Classification Map TGHK RTRWP suggesting a forest area of ​​471,951.53 hectares, but much of tis is protected or hard to access due to steep slopes and transportation logistics and the islands' main plywood company, PT Barito Pacific Timber Group (in Falabisahaya, West Mangole) has closed. Industrial activity is very limited. There is a gold mine in East Mangoli District (at Waitina and Kawata) and coal mines are located in the peninsula of West Sulabesi District, East Taliabu and Sub Sanana (Wai Village Ipa. Reserves of coal are estimated around 10.4 million tonnes.

Fauna

The following species are native to the Sula Islands:

• Babirusa
  Babirusa
  The North Sulawesi babirusa, Babyrousa celebensis, is a pig-like animal native to northern Sulawesi and the nearby Lembeh Islands in Indonesia. It has two pairs of large tusks composed of enlarged canine teeth. The canines in the maxilla penetrate the top of the snout, curving back toward the...
  
   (Babyrousa babyrussa)
• Strigocuscus pelengensis
• Rattus elaphinus
• Acerodon celebensis
• Cynopterus brachyotis
• Dobsonia viridis
• Macroglossus minimus
• Nyctimene cephalotes
• Pteropus caniceps
• Rousettus celebensis
• Thoopterus nigrescens
• Emballonura alecto
• Hipposideros cervinus
• Miniopterus pusillus
• Megapodius Bernateinii (Gosong Sula), status vulnerable

Introduced species include

• Asian House Shrew
• Wild boar (Sus scrofa)
• Polynesian Rat
  Polynesian Rat
  The Polynesian Rat, or Pacific Rat , known to the Māori as kiore, is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the Brown Rat and Black Rat. The Polynesian Rat originates in Southeast Asia but, like its cousins, has become well travelled – infiltrating Fiji and most Polynesian...
  
  (Rattus exulans)

External Links

1. Tourist guide to the Sula Islands
2. Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Profile of the Sula Islands
3. Investment Prospects in Sula (in Indonesian)