Buru is one of the largest islands in Maluku, it is part of central Maluku and is administered from Ambon just east of the island. Buru consists mainly of mountains covered with forest, the highest peak is Gunung Tomahu, 2.428 meter above sea level. Land area about 3.670 sq. km., it is 145 km long and 80 km wide. Along the coast there is a flat plateau, where most of the about 100.000 inhabitants live. The most important city is Namlea at the north coast, which has an airport and a good harbor.

The Banda Sea is one of Indonesia's deepest oceans, at the most more than 6.500 m deep. It spans a large area, all the way to Sulawesi in the west. At the center of the sea south of Seram there are a small group of ten islands plus some uninhabited small corral islands, called the Banda Islands. The most important are Banda Besar, Neira and Gunung Api ("the mountain of fire"). All of the islands are of volcanic origin.

The group of islands called Aru are located just west of Irian Jaya in the Arafura Sea, which stretches all the way to Irian Jaya to the east and Australia to the south. Aru is the easternmost group of islands in Maluku, they consists of about 85 islands totaling an area of 8.563 sq. km. The largest island, Tanabesar, is in reality six different islands, only separated by five narrow channels. Tanabesar is 177 km long and 77 km wide.

Wetar is located just 56 km north of Timor's northeastern coast. The island is 80 km long in east-west direction and 45 km wide in north-south direction, area about 3.600 sq. km. The interior of the island is mountainous and covered by rain forest, highest mountain is 1.412 m. The climate is in the wet season humid with lots of rain, while the rest of the year there can be long periods of drought.