Lorentz National Park

Indonesia / Papua / Nabire /
 park, nature conservation park / area, UNESCO World Heritage Site, national park, wildlife protection/conservation

Lorentz National Park is located in the Indonesian province of Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya (western New Guinea). With an area of 25,056 km² (9,674 mi²), it is the largest national park in South-East Asia. In 1999 Lorentz was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
An outstanding example of the biodiversity of New Guinea, Lorentz is one of the most ecologically diverse national parks in the world. It is the only nature reserve in the Asia-Pacific region to contain a full altitudial array of ecosystems spanning from marine areas, mangrove, tidal and freshwater swamp forest, lowland and montane rainforest, alpine areas, and equatorial glaciers. At 4884 meters, Puncak Jaya (formerly Carstensz Pyramid) is the tallest mountain between the Himalayas and the Andes.
Located at the meeting point of two colliding continental plates, the area has a complex geology with on-going mountain formation as well as major sculpting by glaciation and shoreline accretion which has formed much of the lowland areas. These processes have led to a high level of endemism and the area supports the highest level of biodiversity in the region. The area also contains fossil sites that record the evolution of life on New Guinea.
Birdlife International has called Lorentz Park “probably the single most important reserve in New Guinea” (Birdlife International, 1999).
Lorentz Park contains many unmapped and unexplored areas, and is certain to contain many species of plants and animals as yet unknown to Western science. Local communities' ethnobotanical and ethnozoological knowledge of the Lorentz biota is also very poorly documented.
The park is named for Hendrikus Albertus Lorentz, a Dutch explorer who passed through the area on his 1909-1910 expedition.

whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=955
www.birdlife.org/datazone/ebas/index.html?action=EbaHTM...
www.dephut.go.id/INFORMASI/TN%20INDO-ENGLISH/lorentz_NP...
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   4°32'22"S   138°4'5"E
This article was last modified 14 years ago