Riau

Riau
Basic data
Area :	87,024 km²
Residents :	6,074,100
Population density :	70 inhabitants / km²
Capital :	Pekanbaru
governor	H. Syamsuar (since February 20, 2019)
Location in Indonesia
Website :	www.riau.go.id

Riau is an Indonesian province in the east of the island of Sumatra .

geography

Riau is located in the flat, swamps-traversed eastern part of Sumatra on the Strait of Malacca .

Only separated by narrow inlets are flat islands (indones .: 'Pulau') on the coast:

Rupat (with the largest town Batupanjang)
Bengkalis (with the capital of the same name)
Padang
Rank
Rantau
Penyeler (with the main town Mendung), right in front of the mouth of the Kampar River

The island of Kundur , east of Penyeler, already belongs to the Riau Islands ( Kepulauan Riau ), which have been a province of their own since 2004.

Other coastal islands lie in front of the mouth of the Indragiri , near the city of Tembilahan. A little to the south, in front of the mouth of the Batang Hari , are two small islands.

The mayor's house in Pekanbaru

Rivers are Siak , Indragiri, Kampar and Rokam.

Riau owns a variety of natural resources such as petroleum , natural gas , rubber , palm oil , fish and wood .

The capital of the province is Pekanbaru .

Administrative division

Code Wilayah area code	coat of arms	Kabupaten / Kota administrative district / city	Ibu Kota seat of government!	Kecamatan Sub- District	Keluruhan / Desa municipality	Area [km²]	Population [2019]	Inh. / Km² [2019]
14.01		Kabupaten Kampar	Bangkinang	21st	8/242	10,983.47	748.956	68.2
02/14		Kabupaten Iindragiri Hulu	Rengat	14th	16/178	7,723.8	427.771	55.4
14.03		Kabupaten Bengkalis	Bengkalis	11	19/136	6,975.41	544.144	78.0
04/14		Kabupaten Indragiri Hilir	Tembilahan	20th	39/197	12,614.78	622.281	49.3
14.05		Kabupaten Pelalawan	Pangkalan Kerinci	12	14/104	12,758.45	369.048	28.9
14.06		Kabupaten Rokan Hulu	Pasir Pangaraian	16	6/139	7,588.13	556.199	73.3
14.07		Kabupaten Rokan Hilir	Bagansiapiapi	18th	25/159	8,881.59	638.679	71.9
08/14		Kabupaten Siak	Siak Sri Indrapura	14th	9/122	8275.18	422,869	51.1
14.09		Kabupaten Kuantan Singingi	Teluk Kuantan	15th	11/218	5,259.36	330.966	62.9
14.10		Kabupaten Kepulauan Meranti	Selat Panjang	9	5/96	3,707.84	208,580	56.3
14.71		Kota Pekanbaru	Pekanbaru	12	83 / -	632.27	915.866	1,448.5
14.72		Kota Dumai	Dumai	7th	33 / -	1,623.38	288,741	177.9
14th	Provinsi Riau		Pekanbaru	169	268/1591	87,023.66	6,074,100	69.8

Source: Peraturan Menteri Dalam Negeri RI Nomor 72 Tahun 2019 (ordinance of the Minister of the Interior of October 2019):

The population information is based on updates by the regional civil registration offices and comes from the first half of 2019.

history

The strategically favorable location on the Strait of Malacca and thus the shortest sea route from the Chinese Empire to India determined the importance of the region early on. Since the 15th century, when Sumatra was Islamized , Riau was under the influence of the Empire of Malacca , later a separate sultanate was established here .

The European colonial powers Portugal , Great Britain and the Netherlands fought for influence before all of Sumatra was assigned to the Netherlands in the British-Dutch Treaty of 1824 . The region proved stubborn; it was not until 1911 that the sultanate was abolished and a Dutch colonial administration established. In 1949 Riau became a province of the now independent Indonesia.

ecology

Intensive timber industry ( paper , pulp and wood production ) has been practiced in Riau since 1999 . In addition, palm oil plantations were established. Since then, around 3 km² of tropical rainforest has been disappearing every day , which corresponds to 600 soccer fields ; therefore protected areas are becoming more and more important. The risk of forest fires has risen sharply due to droughts. In 2010 arson broke out on the peat bog, which impaired air quality as far as Malaysia and Singapore. In 2015 there were again forest fires that lasted for weeks.

National parks

Deforestation for oil palm plantation next to Bukit Tigapuluh National Park

In the south of Riau there are several national parks and reserves that are also supported by the WWF .

Tesso Nilo National Park (planned: 1500 km², comparison: Saarland 1930 km²)
Bukit Tigapuluh National Park
Kerumutan Reserves
Bukit Rimbang and Bukit Baling Reserves

The Sumatran elephant , which is now extremely threatened, lives in these national parks and reserves , of which around 1,600 specimens were counted in Riau in 1985, but today only just under 400.

population

The population is made up of more than ten different ethnic groups. 87.8% of the population belongs to Sunni Islam, minorities are Buddhists (6%), Catholics (5%), Protestants (1%) and Hindus (0.2%). Traditionally, Orthodox Islam is predominant.

Spoken in Riau expression of the Malay language was the model for the far part uniform, in Malaysia and in Indonesia on local dialects and languages used Malay .