Indonesia’s 13558 islands: A new census from space and a first step towards a One Map for Small Islands Policy

Indonesia is the largest country made only of islands, with previous census identifying between 13,000 and 25,000 islands. The current official figure puts the number at 17,508 islands. Landsat satellite images were used to provide a documented consistent inventory of the country’s islands. A total of 13,558 islands were mapped considering a minimum size of about 0.001 km2-with 87% and 39% of the islands covering less than 1 and 0.01 km2 respectively. These numbers highlight the dominance of small to very small islands. Beyond providing new accurate spatial statistics, we argued that the island census could be the foundation of a One Map for Small Islands Policy. Indonesia launched its One Map Policy in 2017 to mitigate land use conflicts in the largest of the islands, but small islands have their own development, social and conservation issues, and an extension of the One Map Policy vision to Small Islands is warranted.