Gunung Palung National Park

Gunung Palung National Park is in the province of West Kalimantan in Indonesia, on the island of Borneo.  It is located about 250 km south of the Provincial capital of Pontianak, which is located on the equator.  Traveling to the Park requires first getting a permit from the Indonesian Park Service, then taking a slow 24-hour cargo boat with no facilities or a fast hair-raising speed boat ride for three hours, partly on the open ocean, to the town of Teluk Melano.  From there, the next day is a 12-hour trip up river that ends with walking in the river channel for the last few miles.  Of course, you need to watch out for banded kraits which may be in the river! Luckily, they are nocturnal and quite shy.  The park is home to an amazing diversity of species, such as giant squirrels, rhinoceros hornbills, agile gibbons (with an amazingly complex duet song), and flying lemurs.

Photo from the top of Gunung Palung. Photo by Cam Webb.

The region falls squarely in the equatorial rainforest biome.  Climate data from Pontianak shows temperatures are fairly constant through the year, ranging from 23°C to 32°C each day. The area is wet year round, with over 3500 mm of rain per year, and no month having less than 180 mm.  Rainfall peaks in April and November...near the times the subsolar point (and the ITCZ) passes over the equator.  Flooding is the major natural hazard.  Extensive recent logging has greatly worsened the flooding.  A major flood is currently keeping major roads closed in the central part of the province.

Gunung Palung National Park has hosted a small research station off-and-on for over 25 years.  It has generated excellent research on rainforest tree species and on orang-utans, much of which has been featured in National Geographic magazine (and the photo used for tropical rainforest in the Strahler text is from Gunung Palung).  During the late 1990's, local people began hand-logging in the park to generate extra cash, and palm oil companies developed the buffer of forest around the park.  As the park is extremely threatened by these actions, a study was published in Science showing the pattern of development and forest loss around the park.  This study used remote sensing to show the development of palm oil plantations and the extent of illegal logging.  This report was likely at least partly responsible for increased international attention, and the establishment of increased patrols.  An innovative park manager established an effective deterrent for illegal logging using ultra-light planes to spot logging activity and report to ground patrols.  More recently, another conservation effort to protect the park is taking a new approach...providing healthcare to the poor local communities around the park who were logging as a last resort.  While the conditions around the park are benefiting from these actions, the rampant illegal logging throughout West Kalimantan is creating a terrible crisis for people as well as the environment, as shown in this recent article in the Guardian.