Palau Seribu - 1000 Islands

The Thousand Islands (Kepulauan Seribu) are a chain of islands to the north of Jakarta’s coast. It consists of a string of 110 islands, stretching 45km north into the Java Sea at West Jakarta Bay and in fact north of Banten Province.

An area of 107,489 hectares of land and sea was declared by the Minister of Agriculture in 1982 and designated by a Forestry Ministerial Decree in 2002 as the Taman Nasional Laut Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Islands Marine National Park). There may be as many as 700 individual reefs in the complex. Public access is prohibited on two of the islands, Panjaliran Barat and Panjaliran Timur, where sea turtles are conserved. The decree further states that 36 islands may be used for recreation. Of these 36 islands, only 13 islands are fully developed with 11 islands are homes to resorts and two islands are historic parks. Twenty-three islands are privately owned and are not open to the public. The rest of the islands are either uninhabited or support a fishing village.

In general, the plants that grow in the Park are dominated by coastal species like coconut palm (Cocos nucifera), pandan (Pandanus sp.), cemara laut (Casuarina equisetifolia), cangkudu (Morinda citrifolia), butun (Barringtonia asiatica), mangroves (Bruguiera sp.), breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis), ketapang (Terminalia catappa), and kecundang (Cerbera odollam). Sea vegetation commonly found in the Park consists of seaweed divisions like Rhodophyta, Chlorophyta and Phaeophyta as well as classes of sea grasses like Halimeda sp., Padina sp., Thalassia sp., Sargassum sp., and Caulerpa sp. The dominant animals in the Park include 54 sea biota species which form part of the coral reef ecosystem, 144 species of fish, 2 species of giant clam, 6 species of sea grass, sea worms of various colours and 17 species of coastal bird.

This Park forms a hatching site for hawksbill sea turtle, and green sea turtle. The hawksbill turtle is an endangered species and is rarely found in other waters. These turtles are bred on Pramuka Island. This activity is aimed at recovering the turtle population, which had almost reached extinction. Breeding activities include egg hatching in a semi-natural way and caring for the baby turtles till they are ready to be released into their natural habitat. Most coastal areas of this Park are surrounded by mangrove forest, where monitor lizards, golden ring snakes and reticulated pythons can be found.

There is a range of accommodation, (usually cottages) and prices. Two resort islands that are popular with expats are Pulau Pantara and Pulau Putri. However as is the name Thousand Islands, as are the resorts. We recommend you research the islands and find the one that meets your family‘s needs..