The Barat Daya Islands (; ) are a group of

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

s in the

Maluku province Maluku is located in Eastern Indonesia and geographically located in West-Melanesia, between Sulawesi and Western New Guinea, and comprises the central and southern regions of the Maluku Islands. It is directly adjacent to North Maluku, South ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. The Indonesian phrase ''barat daya'' means 'south-west'.

Geography

These islands are located off the eastern end of

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

. Wetar is the largest island in the group. To the west, the

Ombai Strait Ombai Strait (, , ) is an international strait in Southeast Asia. It separates the Alor Archipelago from the islands of Wetar, Atauro, and Timor in the Lesser Sunda Islands. The strait is also the western portion of a pair of international stra ...

separates Wetar from

Alor Island Alor () is the largest island in the Alor Archipelago and is one of the 92 officially listed outlying islands of Indonesia. It is located at the eastern end of the Lesser Sunda Islands chain that runs through southeastern Indonesia, which fr ...

, part of

East Nusa Tenggara East Nusa Tenggara (; ) is the southernmost province of Indonesia. It comprises the eastern portion of the Lesser Sunda Islands, facing the Indian Ocean in the south and the Flores Sea in the north, with a total land area of 47,238.07 km2. It cons ...

. The

Wetar Strait Wetar Strait (, , ) is an international strait in Southeast Asia. It separates the island of Wetar from the eastern part of the island of Timor. The strait is also the eastern portion of a pair of international straits, the other one being Omb ...

separates Wetar from

Timor Timor (, , ) is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is Indonesia–Timor-Leste border, divided between the sovereign states of Timor-Leste in the eastern part and Indonesia in the ...

to the south. Even though included in the Indonesian Maluku province political division, the southwestern islands are geographically part of the

Lesser Sunda Islands The Lesser Sunda Islands (, , ), now known as Nusa Tenggara Islands (, or "Southeast Islands"), are an archipelago in the Indonesian archipelago. Most of the Lesser Sunda Islands are located within the Wallacea region, except for the Bali pro ...

. Rainfall is limited with a dry season between October and December when some of the islands appear as dry savannah. The Barat Daya Islands except Wetar are part of the

Banda Sea Islands moist deciduous forests The Banda Sea Islands moist deciduous forests is a tropical moist forest ecoregion in Indonesia. The ecoregion includes several island groups in the southwestern Banda Sea, including the Tanimbar Islands, Kai Islands, and the Barat Daya Islands ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...

. Wetar and Timor comprise the

Timor and Wetar deciduous forests The Timor and Wetar deciduous forests is a tropical dry forest ecoregion in Indonesia and East Timor. The ecoregion includes the islands of Timor, Wetar, Rote, Savu, and adjacent smaller islands. Geography Timor, Wetar, Rote, and Savu are part ...

ecoregion. Most of the islands are barren, infertile and minimally forested. Together with

Nusa Tenggara The Lesser Sunda Islands (, , ), now known as Nusa Tenggara Islands (, or "Southeast Islands"), are an archipelago in the Indonesian archipelago. Most of the Lesser Sunda Islands are located within the Wallacea region, except for the Bali pr ...

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

, and most of Maluku, the Barat Daya Islands are part of

Wallacea Wallacea is a biogeography, biogeographical designation for a group of mainly list of islands of Indonesia, Indonesian islands separated by deep-water straits from the Asian and Australia (continent), Australian continental shelf, continental ...

, the group of Indonesian islands that are separated by deep water from both the Australian and Asian continental shelves. The islands of Wallacea have never been linked by land to either

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, and as a result have few mammals and a mix of flora and fauna from both continents.

Islands

Among the islands within the archipelago are (from west to east): * Liran *

Wetar Wetar is a tropical island which belongs to the Indonesian province of Maluku and is the largest island of the Maluku Barat Daya Islands (literally ''Southwest Islands'') Regency of the Maluku Islands. It lies east of the Lesser Sunda Islands, ...

* Kisar * Nyata * Romang *

Leti Islands The Letti Islands () of Indonesia are part of the Maluku Islands, in southwest Maluku Province. (The spelling Leti Islands is also used sometimes.) They are also called the "Lemola" Archipelago, from the initial two letters of each of the three main ...

(Leti, Moa, Lakor) * Sermata Islands * Damer *

Babar Islands The Babar Islands (; ) are located in Maluku Province, Indonesia between latitudes 7 degrees 31 minutes South to 8 degrees 13 minutes South and from longitudes 129 degrees 30 minutes East to 130 degrees 05 minutes East. The group now constitutes ...

Populated places

* Layoni (Teun Island)

Geology

The islands are part of the

Inner Banda Arc The Banda Arc (main arc, Inner, and Outer) is a dual chain of islands in eastern Indonesia that is around 2,300 km long. It is the result of the collision of a continent and an intra-oceanic island arc. The presently active volcanic arc is ...

, a volcanic

island arc Island arcs are long archipelago, chains of active volcanoes with intense earthquake, seismic activity found along convergent boundary, convergent plate tectonics, tectonic plate boundaries. Most island arcs originate on oceanic crust and have re ...

created by the collision of the Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. Romang and Damar are volcanic; Wetar consists mostly of oceanic crust that was pushed to the surface by the colliding plates. The Barat Daya and Banda islands constitute an inner arc; the outer arc, which includes Timor, the

Tanimbar Islands The Tanimbar Islands (; ), also called ''Timur Laut'' (literally, "North East"; ), are a group of about 65 islands in the Maluku province of Indonesia. The largest and most central of the islands is Yamdena; others include Selaru to the sout ...

, and the

Kai Islands The Kai Islands (also Kei Islands) of Indonesia are a group of islands in the southeastern part of the Maluku Islands, located in the province of Maluku (province), Maluku. The Moluccas have been known as the Spice Islands due to regionally sp ...

, is mostly made up of oceanic crust lifted up by the collision, and wraps around south and east of the inner arc.

History

Unlike much of the rest of the Maluku Islands, the Barat Daya Islands did not participate in the inter-island trade over the centuries. Damar was the region's only island to have produced spice. Too remote from the centre of the Malukan spice trade, the Dutch destroyed the nutmeg trees on Babar. Bugis and Makarassarese annually sailed to coral-rich Luang to purchase reef products such as trepang and

mother of pearl Nacre ( , ), also known as mother-of-pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer. It is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Nacre is ...

Administration

The Maluku Barat Daya Regency is administratively composed of seventeen

districts A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

(''kecamatan''), whose areas (in km²) and 2013 officially estimated populations are listed below.:Biro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2015. The districts are formally grouped into three archipelagoes – the Terselatan Group (including Wetar, as well as Kisar and Romang Islands), the Lemola Group (Letti, Moa and Lakor) and the Babar Group (including the Damer and Sermata Islands). The areas (in km²)Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 28 February 2024, ''Kabupaten Maluku Barat Daya Dalam Angka 2024'' (Katalog-BPS 1102001.8108) and the populations at the 2010 censusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 2020 census,Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. together with the official estimates as at mid 2023, are listed below. The table also includes the locations of the district administrative centres, the number of

administrative village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village ...

s in each district (totaling 117 rural ''desa'' and 1 urban ''kelurahan'' – the latter being Tiakur on Moa Island), and its post code. Notes:
(a) the 2010 populations for the four districts which comprised Pulau Pulau Wetar District are listed under Wetar Selatan District.
(b) the 2010 populations of Kisar Utara and Kepulauan Roma Districts are included under the figure for Kisar Selatan District (formerly called Pulau Pulau Terselatan District), from which they were split off.
(c) the 2010 population of Lakor District is included in the figure for Moa District, from which it was split off.
(d) the 2010 population of Pulau Wetang District is included in the figure for Babar Barat District (formerly called Pulau Pulau Babar District), from which it was split off.
(e) the 2010 populations of Pulau Masela and Daweloor Dawera Districts are included under the figure for Babar Timur District, from which they were split off.

References

{{authority control Volcanoes of the Maluku Islands Archipelagoes of Indonesia Landforms of Maluku (province) Inner Banda Arc Islands of the Maluku Islands Populated places in Indonesia