The Sula Islands Regency is one of the regencies in North Maluku province of Indonesia. It consists of two of the three large islands comprising the Sula Archipelago, together with minor adjacent islands. The third island, Taliabu, was split off from the Sula Islands Regency in 2013 to form a separate regency. Pre-Indonesian Independence saw the Sula Islands also known as the Xulla Islands, with Taliabo as Xulla Taliabo, Sanana as Xulla Bessi, and Mangola as Xulla Mangola.
Administration
Sula Islands Regency comprises twelve districts, tabulated below with their areas and populations at the 2010 Census:
Name
English name
Area in km2
Population Census 2010
Mangole Barat
West Mangole
158.30
7,084
Mangole Utara
North Mangole
227.61
10,115
Mangole Selatan
South Mangole
246.56
4,665
Mangole Tengah
Central Mangole
333.21
6,381
Mangole Timur
East Mangole
140.42
4,301
Mangole Utara Timur
Northeast Mangole
149.23
3,777
Mangole Island
1,255.33
36,323
Sanana Utara
North Sanana
75.28
5,675
Sanana
83.36
25,183
Sula Besi Tengah
Central Sula Besi
74.73
5,929
Sula Besi Timur
East Sula Besi
82.18
3,100
Sula Besi Selatan
South Sula Besi
88.49
4,298
Sula Besi Barat
West Sula Besi
128.26
4,707
Sula Besi Island
532.30
48,892
History
The Dutch built a fort on Sanana in 1652. Wallace visited the islands during an ornithological expedition in 1862.
Economy
According to government data, Sula Islands Regency's food crops include vegetables, groundnuts, cassava, sweet potatoes, durian, mangosteen and mango. the area of agriculturally active land was 24743.56 hectares with production amounting to 33,608.62 tons per year. Taliabu-Sanana District is the main producer of cloves, nutmeg, cocoa, copra and other coconut products. Fishery production is very diverse with and estimated sustainable potential of 40,273.91 tonnes per year of which only 22.8 percent is currently exploited. Forestry is considered a potential industry with the natural forest-based Classification Map TGHK RTRWP suggesting a forest area of 471,951.53 hectares, but much of this is protected or hard to access, due to steep slopes and transportation logistics, and the islands' main plywood company, PT Barito Pacific Timber Group has closed. Industrial activity is very limited. There is a gold mine in East Mangoli District and coal mines are located in the peninsula of West Sula Besi District, East Taliabu and Sub Sanana. Reserves of coal are estimated around 10.4 million tonnes.
Tourism
The Indonesian Ministry of Tourism is ready to support the promotion of tourism destination potential on Sula Islands. Demographically located between the crossroads of Wakatobi and Raja Ampat tourist areas, it is ideally developed as marine tourism and special interest tourism for diving enthusiasts. One of the support is Maksaira Festival at Wai Ipa Beach to Bajo Village Beach. On 2018 the festival as a cultural and marine tourism attraction event has entered the third year and will be listed as MURI record breaking for the largest grouper fishing participant targeted by 3000 participants in 2018, where year 2017 followed by 1700 participants.
Fauna
The following species are native to the Sula Islands:
