Mount Palung National Park (Indonesian: Taman Nasional Gunung Palung) is located on the island of Borneo in the Indonesian area of West Kalimantan. It is north of Ketapang and east of Sukadana.
History
Mount Palung was first set aside as a protected forest area in 1937, covering 300 square kilometers (120 square miles). In 1981, the area was expanded to cover 900 square kilometers (350 square miles), and its protection status was changed to a wildlife reserve. On March 24, 1990, the area was designated a national park.
Geography
The park is known for having many different types of habitats, such as mangrove forests, freshwater swamp forests, lowland alluvial forests, and montane forests. It is also home to a wide variety of wildlife. It is one of the few parks in the world where orangutans live in the wild.
A research station called Cabang Panti was built at the western side of Mount Palung in 1985. It is managed by the park’s authorities. Studies conducted there have helped scientists learn more about the plants and animals in Borneo’s forests.
Illegal logging done by hand was a problem in the park, especially between about 2000 and 2003. Efforts by park officials and organizations, such as increased patrols, monitoring with small planes, and educational programs, helped reduce illegal activities. However, illegal logging still happens in some areas. In 2007, a clinic named Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI) was created to offer affordable healthcare and training for other jobs to people living near the park. This helped reduce illegal logging because people now have better access to healthcare and more job opportunities, making them less likely to rely on illegal timber for income. The park was one of the main locations for the EU-funded Illegal Logging Response Center (ILRC), which is now part of the FLEGT initiative.
Research
In 1985, Dr. Mark Leighton, Rhys Bowen, Lisa Curran, Manuel Lerdau, and Todd Truesdale created the Cabang Panti Research Camp inside a National Park. The area covers more than 2,100 hectares and has over 25 kilometers of clearly marked trails that connect all seven types of forests, including the upper montane forest.
From 2004 to 2007, the research station was not used. In 2007, it was rebuilt with money from two research teams in the United States. Scientists Dr. Andrew Marshall from the University of California at Davis and Dr. Cheryl Knott from Boston University funded the work. Today, the station has a main two-story wooden building with six private rooms, three offices, a kitchen, a living area, and a mezzanine. Three additional buildings include a five-room bunkhouse for local research helpers and two one-room homes for main researchers. These buildings were given to Mount Palung National Park in 2011.
Cabang Panti now houses several researchers, including two long-term projects: the Mount Palung Orangutan Project and the Gibbon and Leaf-Monkey Project.
In September 2011, all researchers were forced to leave Cabang Panti by the local Park Office after an NGO sent a letter to Jakarta about illegal logging near the site. The park said they needed the four buildings to house small teams of forest police. After a request to Jakarta, researchers were allowed to return to the area but could not use the buildings.
Orangutan conservation
The orangutan is a key species for conservation efforts in the National Park. It helps spread seeds and plays a role in eating seeds, which supports the forest ecosystem. Scientists believe that orangutans living in Mount Palung have one of the largest and densest populations on Borneo. A study done in 2001, partly funded by The Orangutan Conservancy, estimated there are about 2,500 orangutans in the area. This number represents around 4.5% of Borneo's total orangutan population and nearly 4% of the world's orangutan population.
The Mount Palung Orangutan Project was started in 1994 by Dr. Cheryl Knott. This project combines scientific research on orangutan biology and ecology with efforts to protect the species and its habitat. Dr. Knott studies factors that affect orangutan reproduction and population survival. She also works to raise awareness among local communities to support park conservation and educates people living near the park. She helps National Park staff improve their skills to better protect the area.
Illegal logging and forest fires in Indonesia's rainforests are serious threats to orangutans and their homes. These dangers make it very important to take immediate action to conserve the species and its environment. The Mount Palung Orangutan Conservation Program was created to address these threats and protect orangutans and their habitat.
Tourism
The park has the possibility for ecotourism and has several nice places for visitors. The only way to get permission to enter the park is by paying for a package from Nasalis Tour and Travel or one of its partners. Nasalis is a company that makes money and is run by local National Park staff and administrators. As of August 2011, the park had not approved any other tourism companies to operate within the park boundaries.