Karimata Islands

The Karimata Islands are a chain of small islands off the west coast of Indonesian Borneo, in Kayong Utara Regency, West Kalimantan province, with the largest island stretching about 20 kilometers from east to west. The main island rises to a granite mountain roughly 1,000 meters high, and its vegetation ranges from coastal mangroves and lowland rainforest to montane shrubland at higher elevations, an example of the Massenerhebung effect. The islands once supported large colonies of cave swiftlets harvested for bird's nest soup, though overharvesting has sharply reduced their numbers, and the area is officially a nature reserve, though largely unmanaged. Padang, on the eastern tip, is the largest settlement, and the surrounding coast is known among local inhabitants for a serious malaria problem.