The Kerinci Seblat National Park

Kerinci Seblat National Park, which is in the west of Sumatra Island, has an area of nearly 1.4 million hectares. It covers Jambi, West Sumatra, Bengkulu to South Sumatra province. Not surprisingly, the diversity of topography and ecosystems makes this national park has a unique and beautiful landscape.

Apart from being a conservation area, Kerinci Seblat National Park also offers attractive natural tourist destinations, such as the Lake Kerinci, Tapan Hill, Mount Kerinci and Lake Gunung Tujuh.

The climatic conditions of Kerinci Seblat National Park is vary according to topography, but in general this area is classified into Type A (wet) according to the Schmidt and Ferguson climatic classifications.

The Kerinci Seblat National Park area has a topography in the form of a steep valley that divides the Barisan Mountains into two parallel parts. As a series of hills and mountains, Kerinci Seblat National Park has a very steep slope, about 70% of its total area, with an altitude between 200 to 3,805 meters above sea level.

Credit: Media Indonesia

There are several mountains in the Kerinci Seblat National Park, which are:

– Mount Kerinci (3,805 m above sea level)
– Gunung Tujuh (2,604 m above sea level)
– Mount Seblat (2,383 m above sea level)
– Gunung Raya (2,543 m above sea level)
– Mount Nilo (2,400 m above sea level)
– Mount Masurai (2,600 m above sea level)
– Mount Sumbing (2,500 m above sea level)

The Kerinci Seblat National Park area together with Gunung Leuser National Park and Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park are included in the World Heritage Site list established by UNESCO in 2004.

Credit: Wisata Kita

Kerinci Seblat National Park is a tropical rainforest with various types of vegetation ranging from lowland forest to mountain forest.

The biodiversity of flora in Kerinci Seblat National Park reaches 4000 species of plants with the majority distribution is around 60% in lowland forests. The dominant flora are the Dipterocarpaceae, Leguminosae, Lauraceae, Myrtaceae as well as the Bombacaceae.

Other flora include 300 types of orchids, various types of bamboo, cinnamon, rattan and edelweiss (Anaphalis sp.). In addition, there are also lotus flower Rafflesia arnoldii and Rafflesia hasseltii, as well as Amorphophallus titanium carcass flowers.

Credit: Wild Sumatra

Kerinci Seblat National Park is also home to Sumatran tigers. Moreover, in this area there are a number of other endemic animals such as the Sumatran rhino, tapirs, Sumatran elephants, forest goats, Sumatran rabbits, Sumatran pygmy kuau and kerinci celepuk (kerinci owl) as well.

Although the richness of biodiversity in the Kerinci Seblat National Park area is very high, the threat to this area is also quite high. In one of the “Sumatran Tiger Project” activities, monitoring of animals and plants is carried out outside and inside the national park area. From the results, it turns out that the threat of hunting using snares or with an air rifle, encroachment and illegal logging is still numerous and often found in this area.

Meanwhile, Other fauna wealth possessed by Kerinci Seblat National Park are 139 species of birds with nine types of hornbills, 150 species of mammals and 30 species of them are large mammals, six types of primates, six types of amphibians and ten types of reptiles.