The Kaili language area is located in central-Sulawesi, which is as mentioned above, one of Indonesia's 33 provinces. The capital of the province of Central Sulawesi is the city of Palu, which in turn is the core of the Kaili language area. The by far largest part of the Kaili language area stretches to the South of the provincial capital.

The development project, which is the focus of our research project, covers more or less the same area. It is located around the boundaries of the 1993 opened Lore Lindu National Park.

Indonesia covers a land area of app. 1.9 million km2 and is therefore the largest archipelago of the earth. It consists of up to 14,000 islands, of which about 3,000 are inhabited by man. Indonesia stretches from West to East over more than 5,000 km and from North to South over approximately 1,900 km. The population of Indonesia is more than 230 million people (2003). Indonesia is divided into 33 provinces. Our research project is located in Central-Sulawesi, one of 5 provinces into which the island of Sulawesi is divided. In total, Sulawesi covers an area of 227,000 km2, which is inhabited by approximately 14 million people. Central Sulawesi, in turn, covers an area of 70,000 km2 which is inhabited by only about 2 million people.

Central Sulawesi is therefore one of the less densely populated areas of Indonesia (app. 28 inhabitants/km2). An average growth rate of 1.74% per annum (1990-2000) led to an above average increase of the population. Besides, the province of Central-Sulawesi is a preferred target-region for intra-island migration which in addition accelerates the increase of the population of the province. The population consists mainly of Kaili (20.5%), Buginese (14.39%), Javanese (8.25%), Banggai (5.89%), Bual (4.53%), Saluan (3.84%), Gorontalo (3.83%) and Sundanese (0.57%).

However, the growing numbers of migrants from outside the island of Sulawesi (like Javaneses, Bugineses, Balineses and Sundaneses), who not only contribute to the increase of the population but also trigger socio-economical change, needs to be stressed.