Mount Gede Pangrango National Park is a national park in

West Java West Java (, ) is an Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten and the country's capital region of Jakarta to t ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. The park is centred on two volcanoes—

Mount Gede Mount Gede (; in Sundanese) is a stratovolcano in West Java, Indonesia. The volcano contains two peaks with Mount Gede as one peak and Mount Pangrango for the other one. Three major cities, Cianjur, Sukabumi, and Bogor, are located in the volc ...

and Mount Pangrango—and is 150 km² in area. It evolved from already existing conservation areas, such as Cibodas Botanical Gardens, Cimungkat Nature Reserve, Situgunung Recreational Park, and Mount Gede Pangrango Nature Reserve, and has been the site of important biological and conservation research over the last century. In 1977 UNESCO declared it part of the

World Network of Biosphere Reserves The UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) covers internationally designated protected areas, known as biosphere or nature reserves, which are meant to demonstrate a balanced relationship between people and nature (e.g. encourage susta ...

.Ministry of Forestry: Gunung Gede Pangrango National Park
, retrieved 23 July 2010

Topography and ecology

Mount Gede (2,958 m) and Pangrango (3,019 m) are twin volcanoes. The two summits are connected by a high saddle known as Kandang Badak (2,400 m). The mountain slopes are very steep and are cut into rapidly flowing streams, which carve deep valleys and long ridges. Lower and upper

montane Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

and subalpine forests are within the park and have been well studied. To the north of Mount Gede is a field of Javanese Edelweiss ('' Anaphalis javanica''). The park contains a large number of species known to occur only within its boundaries, however, this may be a result of the disproportionate amount of research over many years. The Mount Gede Pangrango National Park serves as the upper watershed for 4 river basins in the region, three of which are the Cisadane River Basin, Ciliwung River Basin, and Citarum River Basin. All of their main tributaries flow towards the northern coast of Java, eventually reaching the

Java Sea The Java Sea (, ) is an extensive shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf, between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south, Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east. Karimata Strait to its northwest links it to the South Ch ...

. On the other hand, the main tributary of the Cimandiri River basin flows towards the southern coast of Java and drains into the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

Flora and fauna

Gunung Gede-Pangrango is inhabited by 251 of the 450 bird species found in Java. Among these are endangered species like the Javan hawk-eagle and the Javan scops owl. Among the endangered mammal species in the Park, there are several primates such as the silvery gibbon, the Javan surili and Javan lutung. Other mammals include the Javan leopard,

leopard cat The leopard cat (''Prionailurus bengalensis'') is a Felinae, small wild cat native to continental South Asia, South, Southeast Asia, Southeast, and East Asia. Since 2002 it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List as it is widely di ...

, Indian muntjac,

Java mouse-deer The Java mouse-deer (''Tragulus javanicus'') is a species of even-toed ungulate in the family Tragulidae. When it reaches maturity it is about the size of a rabbit, making it the smallest living ungulate. It is found in forests in Java and perha ...

, Sumatran dhole, Malayan porcupine,

Sunda stink badger The Sunda stink badger (''Mydaus javanensis''), also called the Javan stink badger, teledu, Malay stink badger, Malay badger, Indonesian stink badger and Sunda skunk, is a mammal native to Indonesia and Malaysia. Despite the common name, stink ba ...

, yellow-throated marten, and Bartels's rat.

Tourism

Visitors usually enter the park by one of the four gates of the park: the Cibodas, Gunung Putri, and Selabintana gates, all give access to the peaks; the Situ Gunung gate gives entrance to a lake area set aside mainly for family-style recreation. Cibodas gate is the most popular entrance gate and is the site of the park's headquarters. From Jakarta, the area is two hours drive, usually via Cibodas Botanical Gardens.

References

External links

*
Official site

{{authority control Tourist attractions in West Java Geography of West Java National parks of Indonesia Cisadane basin Ciliwung basin Citarum basin Cimandiri basin

Topography and ecology

Flora and fauna

Tourism

See also

References

External links