The Pacific Islands - Melanesia

When we use the term “Pacific Islands”, we refer to approximately 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean, south of the Tropic Cancer. Usually, these islands are divided into three groups:

- Melanesia: (black islands) these are New Guinea (Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian provinces of Maluku, Papua and West Papua), Vanuatu, Fiji, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands and the Torres Strait Islands.

- Micronesia: (small islands) these are Wake Island, the Marianas, Palau, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru and Kiribati.

- Polynesia: (many islands) these are the Hawaiian Islands, New Zealand, the Midway Islands, Easter Island, Rotuma, Samoa, American Samoa, French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu.

Let us discuss each group of islands separately, starting with Melanesia. The first island in our list is New Guinea, which is divided into Papua New Guinea and the provinces of Maluku, Papua and West Papua.

Photo: A waterfall in the middle of an ancient forest in Papua New Guinea.


Starting with Papua New Guinea, the capital of which is Port Moresby, the area has a total population of 5,190,786 individuals as of 2000 and covers a total area of 462,243 square kilometers, according to the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission. The two main languages spoken by the natives of Papua New Guinea are Pidgin and English, while there are more than 700 other languages spoken in the area.

Moving on to Papua and West Papua, both provinces have a total population of 2,646,489 individuals as of 2005, while the island has 16,000 different plant species, while on the Foja Mountains in the area, in 2006 several new species of birds, butterflies, plants and amphibians were discovered.

Vanuatu is a small island of Melanesia, covering a total area of 12,190 square kilometers with a population of 186,678 individuals as of 1999. The official languages of the area are Bislama, French and English. The island is covered by tropical forests but has a limited number of plant and animal species, which include 19 species of reptiles, 11 species of bats and 61 species of birds, while there are no indigenous large mammals in the area. However, like most other Pacific Islands, Vanuatu has a rich sea life.

A beloved destination for travelers and tourists are the Fiji Islands, the capital of which is Suva. The islands cover an area of 18,272 square kilometers and have a total population of 831,600 individuals as of 2003. The languages spoken in the area are Fijian, English and Hindi, while indigenous Fijians are mostly Christian – 97.2% of the total population – and the Indo-Fijians mostly Hindu – 70.7% of the total population.

Photo: A native fisherman in Fiji Islands.


New Caledonia covers an area of 18,576 square kilometers and has a total population of 235,200 individuals as of 2003. The main languages spoken in the area are French and English. New Caledonia is considered one of the most endangered places of our planet and at the same time one of botanically most important areas of the world. Some fossil remains on the island indicate that it was once inhabited by large terrestrial animals, which became extinct prior to the European arrival. One of the official emblems of New Caledonia is the Nautilus, a magnificent sea creature. The island is covered both by rain forests and dry forests, the latter of which are highly endangered.

Moving on to the Solomon Islands, a total area of 28,785 square kilometers with a population of 409,042 individuals as of 1999; these islands are also considered a favorable destination for travelers. They are located East of Papua New Guinea and comprise nearly 1,000 islands, the climate of which is extremely humid, with the cooler period being from June through August. On some of the larger islands there are volcanoes with both high and low activity, the most active of which are the Tinakula and the Kavachi volcanoes. In the area there are more than 230 varieties of orchids and other tropical flowers.

Last but not least of the Melanesia islands are the Torres Strait Islands, a group of at lest 274 small islands, distributed across an area of 48,000 square kilometers. The islands and the waters surrounding them comprise a highly diverse set of both marine and land ecosystems. These ecosystems include a large number of unique species, which include saltwater crocodiles, flat back sea turtles and dugongs. Dugongs are an endangered species of sea mammal also found in the waters of New Guinea. The eastern Torres Strait Islands provide rich and fertile red volcanic soils and are thus thickly vegetated.


Sources:

Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/
The Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission - http://www.sopac.org/
Photo Atlas - http://www.photoatlas.com/
Greenpeace - http://www.greenpeace.org