Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatera Recognized by UNESCO

11 World Heritage Objects in Indonesia

Until this year there are 11 Indonesian objects out of approximately 890 objects around the world which are awarded as World Heritage by UNESCO. These World Heritage objects may get sponsored by World Heritage Fund under certain conditions. The World Heritage objects located in Indonesia are listed as follows: 

World Heritage of Nature : Indonesia has 4 World Heritage of Nature Objects.

Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatera (Mount Leuser National Park, Kerinci Seblat National Park, Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park)

Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatera which consists of three national parks was recognized by UNESCO in 2004. Gunung Leuser National Park (TNGL) is one of nature conservation area which administratively located in two provinces, namely Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and North Sumatera. TNGL includes native ecosystems from coast to high mountains covered by dense forest, a typical of tropical rain. In this TNGL area, there are rare plants such as giant umbrella leaf (Johannesteijsmannia altifrons), raflesia (Rafflesia atjehensis and R. micropylora) and Rhizanthes zippelnii which is the largest flower with a diameter of 1.5 meter. In addition, there is a unique plant which is fig or strangler plant. Meanwhile, Kerinci Seblat National Park is the largest national park in Sumatera. This park lies on four provinces, namely West Sumatera, Jambi, Bengkulu, and South Sumatera. This park consists of Bukit Barisan, which is the highest plateau in Sumatera, hot springs, rushing rivers, caves, highest waterfalls and caldera in Southeast Asia, Mount Tujuh. This national park also has a diverse flora and fauna. About 4000 species of plants grow in the national park area including the largest flower in the world, Rafflesia arnoldi, and the tallest flower in the world, Titan Arum. Fauna in the national park includes Sumatran Tiger, Sumatran Rhinoceros, Sumatran Elephant, Clouded Leopard, Malayan Tapir, Sun Bear and about 370 species of birds.

Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park is located on administrative region of West Lampung and Tanggamus where both of them are part of Lampung Province. This park is very rich in biodiversity and is home to three species of the most endangered mammals in the world: the Sumatran elephant (less than 2000 survive today), Sumateran rhinoceros (total of global population of about 300 and is diminishing drastically) and Sumateran tiger (total of global population of about 400). 

This park is listed on Global 200 Ecoregions, which is a list of ecoregions identified by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as priorities for conservation. According to the WWF, an ecoregion is defined as a “relatively large unit of land or water containing a characteristic set of natural communities that share a large majority of their species, dynamics, and environmental conditions (Dinerstein et al. 1995, TNC 1997).” This park is highlighted as a priority area for Sumatran rhinoceros conservation through Asian Rhino and Elephant Action Strategy (AREAS) program of WWF. In addition, IUCN, WCS and WWF have identified Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park as a Tiger Conservation Unit (Wikramanayake, et al., 1997), the most important forest for tiger conservation in the world. Finally, in 2002, UNESCO has chosen this area to be nominated as World Heritage Cluster Mountainous Area along with Gunung Leuser National Park and Kerinci Seblat National Park.