Mendanau is an island in the Bangka Belitung province of Indonesia. Located about 6 km off the west coast of

Belitung Belitung ( Belitung Malay: ''Belitong'', formerly Billiton) is an island on the east coast of Sumatra, Indonesia in the Java Sea. It covers , and had a population of 309,097 at the 2020 Census. Administratively, it forms two regencies ( Beli ...

and 20 km from the town of

Tanjung Pandan Tanjungpandan (official writing style) (, Jawi: تنجوڠ ڤندن ), is the largest town on the island Belitung in the Indonesian province of Bangka-Belitung, Indonesia. Tanjungpandan is the capital of the Belitung Regency comprising one of the ...

, it is the fourth largest island in the province after Bangka,

and Lepar with an area of approximately 113 square kilometers. Administratively it forms - with about 27 satellite islands - the Selat Nasik District of

Belitung Regency Belitung Regency is a regency (''kabupaten'') of Bangka Belitung Islands Province, Indonesia, with the town of Tanjung Pandan as the regency seat. It formerly covered the whole of Belitung island, but subsequently the eastern districts on the isla ...

, and it is home to 5,674 people at the 2020 Census, mostly spread in 3 settlements.

Geography

The island is located in the

Gaspar Strait The Gaspar Strait ( id, Selat Gaspar) is a strait separating the Indonesian islands Belitung ( en, Billiton, link=no) and Bangka. It connects the Java Sea with the South China Sea. Etymology The strait is named after a Spanish captain, who ...

separating the two large islands. Being the largest island in its archipelagic district, Mendanau is the second largest island in the strait after Lepar, and is surrounded by a handful of smaller islands, most of which are uninhabited. It borders the

Natuna Sea ''(Sacred Ocean, Fortune Land) , image_map = , pushpin_map = Indonesia Riau Islands#Indonesia Sumatra#Indonesia#South China Sea , pushpin_map_caption = Location in Riau Islands##Location in Sumatra##Location in I ...

to the north and Java Sea to the south. Due to its small size, the island consists of a long coastline with a forested interior. Mostly having a flat terrain, the highest elevation of the island reaches about 179 m. The coastline of the whole island is fringed by a

fringing reef A fringing reef is one of the three main types of coral reef. It is distinguished from the other main types, barrier reefs and atolls, in that it has either an entirely shallow backreef zone (lagoon) or none at all. If a fringing reef grows direc ...

from the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

, measuring about 75 km. The monthly average temperature of the island hovers around 26 C throughout the year, and the local climate is classified as tropical rainforest (Af) in the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

. The island comprises the majority of the populations and territory of 3 out of 4 villages within the Selat Nasik District: Suak Gual, Petaling and Selat Nasik. The district office is located in the latter.

History

During the

Indonesian Revolution The Indonesian National Revolution, or the Indonesian War of Independence, was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during postwar and postcoloni ...

, as

NICA Nica or NICA may refer to: * Nīca, a village in Latvia * Nica, the name in some languages of Nice, a French city * Nica is an adjective which may refer to: ** Nicaragua ** Nicaraguan people * Nica Airlines, an alternate name for Nicaragüense de ...

forces retook

, local members of the TKR engaged them in a brief armed clash which killed several in both sides before the ''pemuda'' surrendered unconditionally.

Demographics

The island's population, combined with a handful of satellite islets, was 4,232 individuals separated into 1,234 households in 2016. Of this, 2,448 were aged between 15 and 55. Throughout 2016, there was a net migration of 25 persons leaving the district from the island, larger than the net difference between births and deaths which was 14 in the same year.

Economy

As with other islands in the area, agriculture and fisheries dominate the island's economy. In 2016, local fishermen landed 4,601 tonnes of fish.

Rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, an ...

pepper Pepper or peppers may refer to: Food and spice * Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant ** Black pepper * ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae ** Bell pepper ** Chili ...

and coconut are important cash crops with palm oil plantations beginning to grow within the island. About 30 kilometers of paved road are present in the island. A single public fish market is present in Selat Nasik village, the only one in the subdistrict. A diesel-powered electricity plant, with a total capacity of 1.2 megawatts, is under construction to provide all-day electricity for the island's inhabitants.

References

{{RefList Bangka Belitung Islands