Indonesia has so many islands it has not been able to count them all and is having a hard time finding names for them.
From coral-fringed atolls to jungle-clad volcanoes thrusting up from the ocean, its chains of islands sprinkled along the equator make up the world's biggest archipelago.
Officially there are about 17,000 islands, but Indonesia's environment minister, Rachmat Witoelar, in January said the country could lose about 2,000 islands by 2030 if sea levels continued to rise.
Oceans have risen around 8 inches over the last century, and the U.N. climate panel in February said that by 2100 oceans should be expected to rise by up to 23 inches. Bigger increases cannot be ruled out if ice in Greenland and Antarctica thaws, it added.
So, before it's too late, Indonesia aims to complete its first detailed survey this year, spurred on by worries ranging from sovereignty disputes to climate change.
Even near the capital, there is confusion over the numbers.
Pulau Ayer, or Water Island, is one of a string of islands just north of Jakarta. This tiny dot of an island is part of a chain called Pulau Seribu, or Thousand Islands. Depending on who you ask, there are not 1,000 islands but between 100 and 145 in that chain.
"How can you manage the islands if you don't know the identity of the islands?" questioned Alex Retraubun, a government official in charge of small islands and leader of the survey.
"So this agenda is quite important, quite strategic, to smooth your policies in the future," he added, speaking in his office, with a large map of Indonesia pinned to the wall.
Sand mining a problem, too
The issue has become a hot topic after Indonesia upset neighboring Singapore recently by banning sand exports to the city state, blaming sand mining for literally wiping some of its islands off the map.
The government says it has 17,504 islands, but Retraubun said not all officials are clear about the numbers. "Sometimes the number of islands varies with the speakers. We really need to make sure we have a definitive number."
His team is on the last leg of a three-year project to visit every island in Indonesia. Going to the islands, he says, is needed to ensure something is actually an island rather than a clump of mangroves partly submerged at high tide.
According to the U.N. convention on the Law of the Sea, an island is a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is still exposed at high tide.
The survey team takes the coordinates of an island it visits, notes what is there, whether it is occupied and, if so, what is the makeup of the community. The team interviews the inhabitants.
Far less than half of Indonesia's islands are inhabited and it has yet to officially name more than half.
A marine ministry official said satellite data shows at least 700 are occupied. However, highlighting the sketchy data and hazy definitions, some sources put the number at about 6,000.
Retraubun said that with the majority of small islands in the country only three feet above sea level, there was little Indonesia could do if sea levels rose dramatically.
"I think ... we just pray."
