Mount Palong National Park

Mount Palong in Ketapang. Photo Courtesy National Na


Mount Palong in Ketapang. Photo Courtesy National Na


The Gunung Palung National Park is located in the province West Kalimantan and comprises an area of 90,000 ha. The site encompasses a broad range of forest habitats ranging from coastal beach and mangrove forest to untouched mountain forests on the slopes of the Gunung Palung (1116 m) and Gunung Panti peaks. Peat and freshwater swamp forest and highly endangered lowland dipterocarp forests ring the base and lower slopes of the isolated Palung mountain massif.

At Cabang Panti, located deep within the park, Harvard University has established a research station including a research network that encompasses a total area of approximately 1500 ha on the western side of Gunung Palung. A pilot project for community-based buffer zone management, including production forestry, in an area of approximately 8,000 hectares adjacent to the park currently tries to reduce pressure from illegal logging on the park and seems successful.

The project is jointly administered by the Directorate General of Forest Utilization in the Department of Forestry and Estate Crops of The Republic of Indonesia and the Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Harvard University. The Harvard research station can't be visited by tourists.