Wehea Forest is a 38,000 ha rainforest located in

East Kutai Regency East Kutai Regency () is a regency of East Kalimantan province, Indonesia. It has an area of 31,239.84 km2 and had a population of 253,904 at the 2010 censusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 434,459 at the 2020 census;Badan Pusat Stati ...

East Kalimantan East Kalimantan (Indonesian language, Indonesian: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. Its territory comprises the eastern portion of Borneo/Kalimantan. It had a population of about 3.03 million at the 2010 census (within the cu ...

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 ...

. Wehea was declared a protected forest in 2004 by the Wehea Dayak. This project received the Kalpataru Award in 2009, Indonesia's highest environmental honor. It currently is a co-managed forest between the local Wehea Dayak people from the village of Nehas Liah Bing and Wehea Management Body. The Kepala Adat of Nehas Liah Bing is Ledjie Taq.

Description

The Wehea Forest contains 38,000 hectares of mostly undisturbed forest bordered by large tracts of primary and secondary forests classified as logging concessions. Wehea is classified as a logging concession but paperwork has been submitted to change Wehea’s status to protection forest. Approximately 30% of Wehea has been selectively logged, with the last activity taking place in 1996. To date, approximately 40% of Wehea has been lightly explored. Wehea Forest rises from an altitude of 250 m in the east to 1750 m in the west, with forest types ranging from lowland

dipterocarp Dipterocarpaceae is a family of flowering plants with 22 genera and about 695 known species of mainly lowland tropical forest trees. Their distribution is pantropical, from northern South America to Africa, the Seychelles, India, Indochina, Indo ...

to montane forests. Typical rainfall amounts to 3000 mm per annum with a dry season from June to September and rainy season from November through February. The average temperature ranges from 24 to 35 degrees Celsius. The Wehea Forest is the watershed for the Wehea River in East Kutai Regency and the Long Gi River in the

Berau Regency Berau Regency (, Berau: ''Barrau'') is the most northern of the seven regencies in East Kalimantan province in Indonesia. The capital is the town of Tanjung Redeb. The regency has an area of 36,962.37 km2 and had a population of 179,079 a ...

Biodiversity

Biodiversity studies in Wehea by Integrated Conservation and

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in ...

found it is home to endangered species such as the

Bornean orangutan The Bornean orangutan (''Pongo pygmaeus'') is an orangutan species endemic to the island of Borneo. It belongs to the only genus of great apes native to Asia and is the largest of the three ''Pongo'' species. It has a coarse, reddish coat and up ...

Sunda clouded leopard The Sunda clouded leopard (''Neofelis diardi'') is a medium-sized wild cat native to Borneo and Sumatra. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 2015, as the total effective population probably consists of fewer than 10,000 mature ...

and

sun bear The sun bear (''Helarctos malayanus'') is a bear species in the Family (biology), family Ursidae found in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. It is the only species in the genus ''Helarctos'' and the smallest bear species, standing nearly ...

. In 2011, a team of scientists re-discovered the endangered

Miller's Grizzled Langur Miller's langur (''Presbytis canicrus''), also known as Miller's grizzled langur or Kutai grey langur, is a species of leaf monkey. It is endemic to East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo in Indonesia. It is one of the world's most endangered ...

in Wehea Forest. Research on the ecology of the

orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ...

and other mammals has been done by Brent Loken.

References

External links

Wehea Management Body
{{coord missing, Indonesia East Kutai Regency Geography of East Kalimantan Forests of Indonesia Rainforests Protected areas of Kalimantan Protected areas established in 2004