The Trobriand Islands are a 450 km² archipelago

Archipelago

An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...

 of coral atolls off the eastern coast of New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

. They are situated in Milne Bay Province

Milne Bay Province

Milne Bay is a province of Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Alotau. The province covers 14,000 km² of land and 252,990 km² of sea, within the province there are more than 600 islands, about 160 of which are inhabited...

 in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

. Most of the population of 12,000 indigenous inhabitants live on the main island of Kiriwina

Kiriwina

Kiriwina is the largest of the Trobriand Islands, with an area of 290.5 km². It is part of the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. Most of the 12,000 people who live in the Trobriands live on Kiriwina. The Kilivila language, also known as Kiriwina, is spoken on the island...

, which is also the location of the government station, Losuia. Other major islands in the group are Kaileuna

Kaileuna

Kaileuna is an island in the Trobriand Islands group of Papua New Guinea. It is the second-largest island in the group.-Reference:* at WikiMapia...

, Vakuta

Vakuta

-Reference:* at WikiMapia...

 and Kitava

Kitava

Kitava is an island in the Trobriand Islands group of Papua New Guinea. The inhabitants of this island and their diet and lifestyle have been the subject of special study by researcher Staffan Lindeberg and his colleagues due to their reported excellent health and traditional diet. Mr. Lindeberg...

. The group is considered to be an important tropical rainforest

Tropical rainforest

A tropical rainforest is an ecosystem type that occurs roughly within the latitudes 28 degrees north or south of the equator . This ecosystem experiences high average temperatures and a significant amount of rainfall...

 ecoregion in need of conservation.
The Trobriands consist of four main islands, the largest being Kiriwina island, and the others being Kaileuna, Vakuta and Kitava.