Sulawesi (formerly more commonly known as Celebes, a Portuguese-originated form of the name) is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and Maluku Islands

Geography Sulawesi is the world's elevent largest island, covering an area of 174,600 km². The island is surrounded by Borneo to the west, by the Philippines to the north, by Maluku to the east, and by Flores to the south. It has a distinctive shape, dominated by four large peninsulas: the Semenanjung Minahassa, the east Peninsula, the south Peninsula and the south east peninsula. The central part of the island is ruggedly mountainous, such that the island's peninsulas have traditionally been remote from each other, with better connections by sea than by road. The island is subdivided into six provinces: Gorontalo, West Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, South East Sulawesi, North Sulawesi. West Sulawesi is a new province,

created in 2004 from part of South Sulawesi. The largest cities on the island are Makassar, on the southwestern coast of the island, and Manado on the northern tip.

Flora and fauna
Sulawesi straddles Wallace's Line meaning that it has a mix of both Asian and Australasian species. However, the majority of Sulawesi's wildlife belongs to the Australasia region. 2,290 km² of the island is devoted to Lore Lindu National Park. There are 127 known mammalian species in Sulawesi. A large percentage of these mammals, 62% (79 species) are endemic, meaning that they are found nowhere else in Indonesia or the world. The largest native mammal in Sulawesi is the dwarf buffalo, locally known as the anoa. By contrast, because many birds can fly between islands, Sulawesian bird species tend to be found on other nearby islands as well, such as Borneo only 34% of Sulawesi's birds are found nowhere else. The most important among these last is the Maleo a bird that spends most of its time on the ground. It has undergone an observed very rapid decline. An international partnership of conservationists, donors, and local people have formed the Alliance for Tompotika Conservation, in an effort to raise awareness and protect the nesting grounds of these birds on the central-eastern arm of the island.

Sulawesi also has several endemic species of freshwater fish, such as those in the genus Nomorhampus, a species flock of livebearing freshwater halfbeaks containing at least 19 distinct species, most of which are only found on Sulawesi.

The island was recently the subject of an Ecoregional Conservation Assessment, coordinated by the Nature Conservancy. Detailed reports about the vegetation of the island are available. The assessment produced a detailed and annotated list of 'conservation portfolio' sites . This information was widely distributed to local government agencies and nongovernmental organizations. Detailed conservation priorities have also been outlined in a recent publication.

The lowland forests on the island are, unfortunately, almost gone. Because of the relative geological youth of the island and its dramatic and sharp topography, the lowland areas are naturally limited in their extent. The past decade has seen dramatic conversion of this rare and endangered habitat. The island also possesses one of the largest outcrops of Serpentine soil in the world, which support an unusual and large community of specialized plant species. Overall, the flora and fauna of this unique center of global biodiversity is very poorly documented and understood and remains critically threatened.

Population
The 2000 census population of the provinces of Sulawesi was 14,946,488, about 7.25% of Indonesia's total population. The largest city is Makassar of south Sulawesi.

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