West Kalimantan: Lake Sentarum National Park

Danau Sentarum National Park (DSNP),is located in a remote area of West Kalimantan, Indonesia, and situated close to the Malaysian border of Sarawak, approximately 700 km. inland from the provincial capital, Pontianak. DSNP is an area of interconnected seasonal lakes and seasonally flooded tropical forests with the water catchment consisting of lowland tropical forest in the hills and flooded forest in the low-lying areas. A patchwork of various forest developmental stages characterizes the former and is a result of commercial logging, swidden cultivation, and smallholdings of rubber and pepper. The altitude within the park is approximately 30-35 m. above sea level, while the surrounding hills rise as high as 760 m. Daytime temperatures are consistently 26-30 degrees Celsius, with annual rainfall ranging between 3000 and 4000 mm.


The driest months are usually July, August, and September. The area was established as the Danau Sentarum Wildlife Reserve in 1985. The main part of the park comprises around 1250 square km though the exact boundaries of the park remain unclear. The Iban longhouse community of Sungal Sedik (2) located about 6 km. from the district administrative center and market town of Lanjak. The longhouse was a 14-household community containing about 98 residents. The Sungai Sedik territory was occasionally hunted by members of at least five other longhouse communities and residents of Lanjak.