Description
The Sumatra Tropical Rainforest is divided into 3 national parks: Gunung Leuser National Park, which covers 8,629.75 square kilometers, Kerinci Seblat National Park, which covers 13,753.50 square kilometers, and Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, which covers 3,568 square kilometers. The rainforest encompasses a total land area of 25,000 square kilometers or 9,700 square miles and accounts for approximately of Sumatra’s rainforests.
Animals
Sumatra’s rainforest is home to some of the world’s most endangered animals and plants. This is the only area in the world where tigers, rhinoceroses, orangutans, and elephants coexist. The Probosci’s monkey, sun bear, clouded leopard, and flying fox bat are among the lesser-known wonders that call it home.
Gunung Leuser National Park is one of 18 Indonesian areas included in the World-Wide Fund for Nature’s list of the world’s 200 most important ecoregions for biodiversity preservation. In the year 2000, there were 174 mammals, three of which were endemic, and 21 of which were threatened. The smallest mammals are little understood. There are 380 bird species listed, 13 of which are endemic and 52 of which are endangered. The orangutan, Sumatran rhinoceros, and pig-tailed monkey are only a few of the notable species. Rafflesia Arnoldi and Amorphophallus titanium are two important plants. Several significant bird species are the Rueck’s blue flycatcher and the white-winged duck.
However, these lovely creatures are vanishing as their forest homes are quickly being torn down to make room for oil palm plantations or destroyed by commercial or illicit logging.
Poaching is also a serious threat to the island’s endangered species: tigers are hunted for their skins, rhinos are slain for their horns, and orangutans are removed from the wild for the entertainment and tourist sector.
Facts and figures
- Sumatra is the world’s sixth biggest island, encompassing 470,000 km2.
- There are over 15,000 recognized plants in Sumatra’s woods; more than 400 new species have been reported since 1995.
- In the last 22 years, over 12 million hectares of forest in Sumatra have been removed, representing a roughly 50% loss.
- There are 201 mammal species and 580 bird species on Sumatra.
- There are fewer than 300 Sumatran rhinos and 400 Sumatran tigers living in the wild, making them critically endangered.
- The Sumatran elephant is Asia’s smallest elephant.
- The Sumatran orangutan is less common than the Bornean orangutan.
Abstract
The property is made up of three national parks that feature some of the richest and most diverse surviving rainforests on the planet. They are located in wooded volcanic mountains spanning from coastal lowlands to highlands, with a diverse spectrum of soils, hydrological conditions, and ecosystems ranging from marine to subalpine volcanoes, supporting diverse flora and fauna. They will continue to be key refugia for future evolutionary processes. The location has the best potential for long-term conservation of Sumatra’s unique and diversified biota. The protected region is home to over 200 animal species and 10,000 plant species. 22 of the animal species are Asian and found nowhere else in the archipelago.
