Bird's Head Peninsula in the context of "West Papua (province)"

Raja Ampat (Indonesian pronunciation: [ˌrad͡ʒa ˈ(ʔ)ampat̪̚]), or the Four Kings, is an archipelago located off of the northwest tip of Bird's Head Peninsula (on the island of New Guinea), Southwest Papua province, Indonesia. It comprises over 1,500 small islands, cays, and shoals around the four main islands of Misool, Salawati, Batanta, and Waigeo, and the smaller island of Kofiau.

The Raja Ampat archipelago is just south of the equator and forms part of the Coral Triangle, an area of Southeast Asian seas containing the richest marine biodiversity on earth. The Coral Triangle itself is an approximate area west-southwest of the Philippines, east-northeast and southeast of the island of Borneo, and north, east, and west of the island of New Guinea, including the seas in between. Thousands of species of marine organisms, from the tiniest cleaner shrimp and camouflaged pygmy seahorses to the majestic cetaceans and whale sharks, thrive in these waters.

Southwest Papua (Indonesian: Papua Barat Daya; Indonesian pronunciation: [papʊa barat daja]) is the 38th province of Indonesia to be created and was split off from West Papua on 8 December 2022. Despite being named "southwest", this is actually a misnomer and this province is actually located in the northwest edge of Papua. The province comprises the Greater Sorong area (Indonesian: Sorong Raya; Indonesian pronunciation: [ˌsɔrɔŋ ˈraja]) which consists of Sorong City, Sorong Regency, South Sorong Regency, Maybrat Regency, Tambrauw Regency, and Raja Ampat Regency. The Bill (RUU) on the Establishment of the Southwest Papua Province was passed into law (by Act No. 29 of 2022), and therefore, it became the 38th province in Indonesia with effect from 8 December 2022.

Southwest Papua is situated on the northwestern side of the region known as the Doberai Peninsula, or the Bird's Head Peninsula. The province's westernmost point encompasses the protected region of the Raja Ampat Islands, which boasts a rich variety of marine creatures, including coral reefs, leatherback sea turtles, manta rays, and whale sharks. The province of Southwest Papua is centered around its capital, Sorong, which serves as an important hub for the region's oil and gas industry and a gateway to Papua. With modern port and airport facilities, Sorong is one of the most developed cities in Papua. The province of Southwest Papua is home to various preserved ecosystems, including tropical rainforests and mountains. Tambrauw Regency, in particular, is a popular birdwatching destination and has declared its area as Conservation Regency in order to promote ecotourism.

The Coral Triangle (CT) is a roughly triangular area in the tropical waters around Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste. This area contains at least 500 species of reef-building corals in each ecoregion. The Coral Triangle is located between the Pacific and Indian oceans and encompasses portions of two biogeographic regions: the Indonesian-Philippines Region, and the Far Southwestern Pacific Region. As one of eight major coral reef zones in the world, the Coral Triangle is recognized as a global centre of marine biodiversity and a global priority for conservation. Its biological resources make it a global hotspot of marine biodiversity. Known as the "Amazon of the seas" (by analogy to the Amazon rainforest in South America), it covers 5.7 million square kilometres (2,200,000 sq mi) of ocean waters. It contains more than 76% of the world's shallow-water reef-building coral species, 37% of its reef fish species, 50% of its razor clam species, six out of seven of the world's sea turtle species, and the world's largest mangrove forest. The epicenter of that coral diversity is found in the Bird's Head Seascape of Indonesian Papua, which hosts 574 species (95% of the Coral Triangle, and 72% of the world's total). In 2014, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) reported that the gross domestic product of the marine ecosystem in the Coral Triangle is roughly $1.2 trillion per year and provides food to over 120 million people. According to the Coral Triangle Knowledge Network, the region annually brings in about $3 billion in foreign exchange income from fisheries exports, and another $3 billion from coastal tourism revenues.

The World Wide Fund for Nature considers the region a top priority for marine conservation, and is addressing ecological threats to the region through its Coral Triangle Program, launched in 2007. The center of biodiversity in the Triangle is the Verde Island Passage in the Philippines. Coral reef area in the region to have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site are Tubbataha Reef Natural Park in the Philippines and Raja Ampat UNESCO Global Geopark in Indonesia.

The Bird's Head plate is a minor tectonic plate incorporating the Bird's Head Peninsula, at the western end of the island of New Guinea. Hillis and Müller consider it to be moving in unison with the Pacific plate. P. Bird considers it to be unconnected to the Pacific plate.

The plate is separating from the Australian plate and the small Maoke plate along a divergent boundary to the southeast. Convergent boundaries exist along the north, between the Bird's Head and the Caroline plate, the Philippine Sea plate and the Halmahera plate to the northwest. A transform boundary exists between the Bird's Head and the Molucca Sea Collision Zone to the southwest. Another convergent boundary exists between the Bird's Head and the Banda Sea plate to the south.

The Papuan Peninsula, also known as the Bird's Tail Peninsula, is a large peninsula in Papua New Guinea, southeast of the city of Lae, that makes up the southeastern portion of the island of New Guinea. The peninsula is the easternmost extent of the New Guinea Highlands and consists largely of the Owen Stanley Range, with peaks such as Mount Victoria (4,038 m) and Mount Suckling (3,676 m). On the south coast is Port Moresby, the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea.

The island of New Guinea is often visualized as being in the shape of a bird, with the Bird's Head Peninsula being at the northwest end of the island, and the Bird's Tail Peninsula at the southeast end. For example, American soldiers in WWII visualized it specifically as a turkey, and referenced the anatomy of the bird as a shorthand for explaining where various actions and deployments occurred on the island.

Teluk Cenderawasih National Park is the largest marine national park of Indonesia, located in Cenderawasih Bay, south-east of Bird's Head Peninsula. It includes the islands of Mioswaar, Nusrowi Island, Roon, Rumberpon, Anggrameos and Yoop. The park protects a rich marine ecosystem, with over 150 recorded coral species, for which it is considered a potential World Heritage Site.

Sorong is the largest city and the capital of the Indonesian province of Southwest Papua. The city is located on the western tip of the island of New Guinea with its only land borders being with Sorong Regency. It is the gateway to Indonesia's Raja Ampat Islands, species rich coral reef islands in an area considered the heart of the world's coral reef biodiversity. It also is the logistics hub for Indonesia's thriving eastern oil and gas frontier. Sorong experienced rapid growth during the decade from 2010, and further growth is anticipated as Sorong becomes linked by road to other frontier towns in Papua's Bird's Head Peninsula. The official estimate of population as of mid 2024 was 286,028 - comprising 150,236 males and 135,729 females. The suburban area of Sorong city contains tropical rainforest and mangrove forest that has increasingly become popular as ecotourism attractions especially for birdwatching or wildlife watching.

Tambrauw Regency (Indonesian pronunciation: [ˈt̪ambrau]) is a regency of Southwest Papua Province, Indonesia, in the Bird's Head Peninsula of Papua Island. It was created on 29 October 2008 from what had been an eastern part of Sorong Regency, originally as part of the province of West Papua. Much of the regency is located on the Tamrau Mountains that the local government declarated Tambrauw as a "conservation regency".