Editing Geography of Indonesia (section)

==Environmental issues==
{{main|Environmental issues in Indonesia}}

[[File:Riau palm oil 2007.jpg|thumb|Deforestation in Riau province, Sumatra, to make way for an [[oil palm]] plantation, 2007.]]
Indonesia's high population and rapid industrialisation present serious [[Environmental issues in Indonesia|environmental issues]], which are often given a lower priority due to high poverty levels and weak, under-resourced governance.<ref name="forestprob">{{Cite web |author=Jason R. Miller |title=Deforestation in Indonesia and the Orangutan Population |publisher=TED Case Studies |date=30 January 1997 |url=http://www.american.edu/TED/orang.htm |access-date=14 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160229155532/http://www1.american.edu/TED/orang.htm |archive-date=2016-02-29 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Issues include [[Deforestation in Indonesia|large-scale deforestation]] (much of it [[illegal logging|illegal]]) and related wildfires causing [[Smog#Southeast Asia|heavy smog]] over parts of western Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore; over-exploitation of marine resources; and environmental problems associated with rapid [[urbanisation]] and [[economic development]], including [[air pollution]], [[traffic congestion]], garbage management, and reliable water and [[Wastewater|waste water]] services.<ref name="forestprob" />

Deforestation and the destruction of peatlands make Indonesia the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases.<ref>{{cite news |last=Higgins |first=Andrew |title=A climate threat, rising from the soil | newspaper=The Washington Post | url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/18/AR2009111804162.html |access-date=11 December 2009 | date=19 November 2008}}</ref> [[Habitat destruction]] threatens the survival of indigenous and endemic species, including 140 species of [[mammals]] identified by the [[World Conservation Union]] (IUCN) as [[threatened species|threatened]], and 15 identified as critically endangered, including the Sumatran Orangutan.<ref>{{cite web |last=Massicot |first=Paul |title=Animal Info – Indonesia |publisher=Animal Info – Information on Endangered Mammals |url=http://www.animalinfo.org/country/indones.htm |access-date=14 August 2007}}</ref>

In 1978, 14% of Indonesians lived in cities compared to over 30% today, and this increases pressure on the urban environment. Industrial pollution is increasing, particularly in Java, and the increasing affluence of the growing middle class drives a rapid increase in the number of motor vehicles and associated emissions. Garbage and waste water services are being placed under increasing pressure. Reliance on septic systems or effluent disposal in open canals and [[List of rivers of Indonesia|river systems]] remains the norm, and is a major polluter of water resources. Very few Indonesians have access to safe drinking water and must boil water before use.

The geographical resources of the Indonesian archipelago have been exploited in ways that fall into consistent social and historical patterns. One cultural pattern consists of the formerly Indianized, rice-growing peasants in the valleys and plains of Sumatra, Java, and Bali, another cultural complex is composed of the largely Islamic coastal commercial sector, a third, more marginal sector consists of the upland forest farming communities which exist by means of subsistence swidden agriculture. To some degree, these patterns can be linked to the geographical resources themselves, with abundant shoreline, generally calm seas, and steady winds favouring the use of sailing vessels, and fertile valleys and plains—at least in the Greater Sunda Islands—permitting irrigated rice farming. The heavily forested, mountainous interior hinders overland communication by road or river, but fosters slash-and-burn agriculture.