Usun Apau National Park () is a national park in

Sarawak Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...

, Malaysia, on the island of

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

. It was designated in 2005. It covers the Usun Apau Plateau in the highlands of central Borneo.Reels, GT & Dow, Rory & Ngiam, Robin. (2015). Odonata collected at Usun Apau National Park, Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia in April and May 2012. ''International Dragonfly Fund - Report''. 79. 1-17.

Geography

Usun Apau is a volcanic plateau covering an area of approximately 1,550 km², and averaging 1000 meters in elevation. There are three extinct volcanoes in the center of the plateau – Selidang (1,370 m), Kenawang (1,280 m), and Mabun (1,280 m). The northern, eastern, and western edges of the plateau end in steep escarpments nearly 300 meters high. Three rivers drop from the northern edge of the escarpment, including the Julan River, which forms the Julan waterfall almost 245 meters high. Streams from the plateau form the headwaters of the Rajang and Baram rivers. Julan waterfall 01

Flora and fauna

The plateau is covered by montane rain forests, including ''kerapa'', a stunted forest of small trees with gnarled trunks and which forms on poor soil with bad drainage, and ''

kerangas The Sundaland heath forests, also known as ''Kerangas'' forest, is a type of tropical moist forest found on the island of Borneo, which is divided between Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as on the Indonesian islands of Belitung and Ban ...

'' forest, made up of tall trees with thin trunks growing on infertile volcanic soil. Hill dipterocarp forest covers the lower slopes of the plateau.BirdLife International (2023
Important Bird Areas factsheet: Usun Apau plateau.
Accessed 12 March 2023. The plateau is home to several vulnerable and

near-threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qu ...

bird species, including the Bulwer's pheasant (''Lophura bulweri''), Bornean ground cuckoo (''Carpococcyx radiceus''),

rhinoceros hornbill The rhinoceros hornbill (''Buceros rhinoceros'') is a large species of forest hornbill ( Bucerotidae). In captivity it can live for up to 35 years. It is found in lowland and montane, tropical and subtropical climates and in mountain rain forests ...

(''Buceros rhinoceros''),

ferruginous partridge The ferruginous partridge (''Caloperdix oculeus'') is a species of bird in the family Phasianidae. It belongs to the monotypical genus ''Caloperdix''. It is found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. Taxonomy The ferruginous partridge ...

(''Caloperdix oculeus''),

Dulit frogmouth The Dulit frogmouth (''Batrachostomus harterti'') is a little-known species of bird in the frogmouth family, Podargidae, with a patchily recorded distribution in the Borneo montane rain forests to which it is endemic. The species is monotypic. ...

(''Batrachostomus harterti''), Gould's frogmouth (''Batrachostomus stellatus''), Whitehead's trogon (''Harpactes whiteheadi''), Hose's broadbill (''Calyptomena hosii''),

black oriole The black oriole (''Oriolus hosii'') is a species of bird in the family Oriolidae. It is endemic to the island of Borneo. One of the least known of the orioles, its distribution range is restricted to Sarawak in Borneo. Along with the black-and ...

(''Oriolus hosii''),

Sunda laughingthrush The Sunda laughingthrush (''Garrulax palliatus'') is a bird species in the family Leiothrichidae. It is found on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo in Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland ...

(''Garrulax palliatus''), and

Everett's thrush Everett's thrush (''Zoothera everetti'') is a species of bird in the family Turdidae. The name commemorates British colonial administrator and zoological collector Alfred Hart Everett. Distribution and habitat The thrush is endemic to the islan ...

(''Zoothera everetti''). It is designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

. The gracile slender toad (''Ansonia teneritas'') is known only from the plateau and one other locality.

Access

The plateau is relatively inaccessible, with access to the base of the plateau on logging roads, and only trails and no roads on the plateau itself. In August 2022, Sarawak's premier

Abang Abdul Rahman Johari Abang Openg Abang Abdul Rahman Zohari bin Abang Openg (born 4 August 1950), also known as Abang Johari or Abang Jo, is a Malaysian politician who has served as the sixth and current Premier of Sarawak since 2017. A member of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersat ...

announced that the Government of Sarawak would improve road access to the national park, and Julan Waterfall in particular, to open it to tourism, as part of the state's Post-COVID-19 Development Strategy through 2030.

References

{{authority control 2005 establishments in Malaysia National parks of Sarawak Important Bird Areas of Sarawak Borneo montane rain forests Miri Division Borneo lowland rain forests Sundaland heath forests

Geography

Flora and fauna

Access

See also

References