5 Largest Islands in the World, some are from Indonesia

VIVA – Earth consists of many islands large and small scattered. According to the Big Indonesian Dictionary (KBBI), an island or land surrounded by water, either by sea, river, or lake.

Meanwhile, in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982), it is stated that an island is a naturally formed landmass surrounded by water and does not sink during the highest tide.

The island also has its own uniqueness, there is an island covered by a seemingly endless expanse of snow and ice.

Here are some of the largest islands in the world that people need to know.

Baffin Island has the smallest population of any island, Baffin Island has been inhabited for over 3,000 years.

The island, located in Canada's Nunavut region, was home to various Paleo-Eskimo cultures for about 2,000 years.

Leif Erikson the famous Viking is thought to have visited Baffin Island around 1000 AD while exploring the surrounding area. He was credited with being the first European to set foot on the North American continent, which was about 500 years before Christopher Columbus reached the Caribbean.

The island of Madagascar, located off the east coast of southern Africa is renowned for its rare and diverse wildlife, 90 percent of which isn’t found anywhere else in the world.

Because Madagascar separated from the Indian subcontinent 88 million years ago, an event that allowed the island's plants and animals to evolve in almost complete isolation.

In 2003, the government of Madagascar announced a program called the 'Durban Vision', which seeks to double the amount of protected land and help preserve the country's extraordinary biodiversity.

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and the only island that has three countries. About 73 percent of the island is administered by Indonesia, 26 percent by Malaysia, and 1 percent by Brunei, the latter being the only country that covers its entire landmass in Borneo.

The island of Borneo has an extraordinary diversity of flora and fauna. Its rainforests are about 140 million years old and makes it one of the oldest rainforests in the entire world.

While there are many animals that inhabit the dense rainforests of Borneo, the most famous is undoubtedly the Bornean Orangutan.

Besides the Bornean Orangutan, the island is also home to endemic species such as the Borneo Elephant, East Sumatran Rhino, and Borneo Clouded Leopard.

Papua New Guinea is the second largest island in the world and the largest island south of the equator. The island is separated from mainland Australia by the Torres Strait, which contains 274 islands.

The western part of Papua New Guinea is managed by Indonesia while the eastern part of the island is managed by Papua New Guinea itself.

The name Papua New Guinea or 'New Guinea' was given to the Spanish explorer Ynigo Ortiz de Retez, who visited the island in 1545 and saw many similarities between the island's native inhabitants and people from the Guinean region of Africa.

5. Greenland – Denmark

Greenland is by far the largest island in the world and also contains one of only two ice sheets in existence today, the other being Antarctica.

Apart from being the largest island, Greenland's other claim, it contains the oldest known rock on earth, dating back about 3.8 billion years.

In addition, the island also has Northeast Greenland National Park, which is the largest National Park in the world.

Greenland is the least populated area in the world. Of the total population, the vast majority of whom are Inuit, about 18,000 live in the Greenland capital, Nuuk. The remainder live in sparse settlements located along the island's enormous coastline.