LEUSER NATIONAL PARK

Appointment base: Minister of Forestry Decree Number: 276/Kpts-VI/1997 
Dated 23 May 1997 
Total area: 1,094,692 ha 
Location: 
1. Province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam; District of Southeast Aceh, South Aceh, Gayo Lues, and  West Aceh (867,789 ha) 
2. Province of North Sumatra; District of Dairi, Karo, and Langkat (226,903 ha) 
Coordinate: 02˚50′ - 04˚10′ N and 96˚35′ - 98˚30′ E 

Gunung Leuser National Park has biodiversity potential which globally recognized, therefore UNESCO declared this national park as biosphere reserve and a cluster Natural World Heritage Site. The Park is also designated as a “Sister Park” to the Taman Negara in Malaysia. Straddling on the Bukit Barisan mountains, the park is considered as a conservation area representing several types of ecosystems, from coastal forest, lowland forest, montane forest and lake which are still relatively natural with abundant endangered and endemic animals. 

HISTORY OF THE AREA

Designation of Gunung Leuser as a conservation area has a long history: 
• Year 1934, designation of Gunung Leuser sanctuary reserve (142,800 ha); 
• Year 1936, designation of Kluet Aceh sanctuary reserve (20,000 ha); 
• Year 1938, designation of Langkat sanctuary reserve in North Sumatra province (51,000 ha); 
• Year 1976, designation of Kappi sanctuary reserve in Aceh province (142,000 ha); 
• Year 1980, Minister of Agriculture declared the four sanctuary reserves and several recreation forests to be managed as national park; 
• Year 1997, designation of Gunung Leuser National Park with a total area of 1,094,692 ha.

PHYSICAL CONDITION

Geology The northern part of Gunung Leuser National Park is Leuser Simpoli mountains, it made up from a formation of “munkap mata-sediment and glanalei”. It was approximately formed in the Permo-Carboniferous period which experienced little weathering. The types of rocks include black and grey phylite, metasilstone, metasandstone, fine grained quartzite, and marble. The types of rocks found in Lembah Alas, Bendara and Kluet - Rameh paths include guartzbiolite schists banded, gneiss, cucocratic, fine granular gneiss, amphibolete, banded and massive marble. The formation of Alas Barat was estimated made up in the Mesozoic era with the rock types of black shale to slate, siltstone, hard sandstone, minor grey wache, conglomerate, banded and massive limestone and dolomite, as well as chert. 

Soil

There are at least 11 types of soils found in the Gunung Leuser. Three of them dominate this area, such as brown podsolic, podsolic and litosol soil complex (38.41%), yellow red podsolic, latosol and litosol soil complex (31.97%), and andosol (13.76%). These types of soils include organosol and gleihumus, regosol, yellow red podsolic (sedimentary rocks), yellow red podsolic (alluvium rocks), regosol, andosol, lithosol, yellow red podsolic (alluvium and igneous rocks), yellow red podsolic, latosol and lithosol soil complex, brown podsolic, podsolic and litosol soil complex, renzina and litosol soil complex. 

Topography 

Gunung Leuser National Park is located in undulated and mountains area. Only small part of the area which are Sekundur-Langkat in east coast and Kluet in west coast that are lowland. Some morphology elements can be obviously found here like a chain of mountains with many layers, steep and undulated hills, mountains, upperland, plato, valley, lowland, coast and river of various shapes and patterns. There are at least 33 hills or mountains in this area; others are not recorded yet. One of the highest peak is Mount Leuser with the altitude of 3,149 m asl. 

Climate 

Based on the Schmidt - Fergusson’s classification, the climate type in the area is A, with the dry season between March and August and the rainy season between September and February. The average annual rainfall ranges from 1,000 - 3,000 mm. The average minimum temperature ranges from 23 - 25oC while the average maximum is between 30 - 33oC. The average relative humidity ranges from 65 - 75%. 

Hidrology 

The park is water catchment area and water resource for many large rivers in the Provinces of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and North Sumatra. The hydrology system is characterised by long river (Alas River) and streams with water flowing from mountains, such as Mount Leuser, Mount Kemiri, Mount Bendahara, Mount Parkinson, and others. Water from these streams were then Indonesia Ocean and Malacca Strait. In general, there are several watersheds in which the water come from the Gunung Leuser National Park: 

• Bakongan, Krueng Kluet, Krueng Baro, Krueng Susoh, Krueng Batee and Krueng Tripa; 
• Krueng Tripa and Lesten; 
• Lesten/Jampur/Tamiang; 
• Sekundur/Besitang, Sei Lepan, Sei Batang Serangan, Sei Musam, Sei Bohorok, Sei Berkail, Sei Wampu, Sei Bekular, and Sei Bingei; 
• Waihni Gumpang, Waihni Marpunga, Lawe Ketambe, Lawe Kompas, and Lawe Bengkung. 

Other than rivers, there are also two small lakes in this area, Lake Bangko (10 ha) in Kluet and Lake Marpunga (6 ha) in Marpunga. Several locations of thermal spring are also found here, such as that in Lawe Geger (Sibolangit Protection Forest) and in Kappi. The location of saline water (the place for wildlife salination) can also be found in Alas, Kappi, Leuser and Muara Renun. 

Biotic 

The park represents a complete distribution of vegetations, from coastal/swamp forest, lowland forest, highland forest, to montane forest. Almost all of this area are covered by dense dipterocarp forests. The dominant vegetation in this area is the vegetations of tropical rain forests. Van Steenis divided the plant kingdom found in the parks into three zones: 
Tropical Zone (500 - 1,000 m asl);  
is a dense forest covered by various stand species with large diameter and up to 40 m in height, as well as some liana and interesting epiphyte species such as orchid. 
Montane Zone (1,000 - 1,500 m asl); 
is a montane forest covered by woody stands with a height of approximately of 10 - 20 m. The humidity is high in the area, so many algaes are found covering the woody stands or trees there. 
Sub Alpine Zone (2,900 - 4,200 m asl); 
is an ercaoid forest zone with no more trees there in which the vegetation is a mixture of small trees and shrubs as well as tundras, orchids and algaes. 

Flora 

The Gunung Leuser area has about 3,000 - 4,000 plant species, which are mainly located in the lowland forests under 300 m asl. Some of them are commercial timber species from Dipterocarpaceae family (95 species), fruit trees, rattan (74 species), palm, herbal trees and bamboos. Some of the commercial timber species are meranti, keruing and kapur (Dryobalanops aromatica); some of the fruit trees are durian hutan (Durio oxleyanus and D. zibethinus), menteng (Baccaurea motleyana and B. racemosa), dukuh (Lansium domesticum), mangga (Mangifera foetida and M. quadrifida), rukem (Flacourtia rukem), and rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum); and some of the herbal trees are styrax and cinnamon. There are some protected and endangered flora species, such as palem daun sang (Johannesteijsmania altifrons) - can be found in Langkat, rafflesia flowers (Rafflesia atjehensis and R. hasseltii), and Rhizanthes zippelnii - the biggest flower with a diameter of 1.5 m. 

Fauna 

There are at least 34 genera, 144 families and 717 wildlife species, in which 89 species of them are endangered and extinct species in other national parks. 
Mammal; Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii), white-handed gibbon (Hylobates lar), thomas’ leaf-monkey (Presbytis thomasi), siamang (Hylobates syndactylus syndactylus), sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus), sambar deer (Cervus unicolor equinus), sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis sumatrensis), serow (Capricornis sumatraensis sumatraensis), and leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis sumatrana). 
Bird; Such as red-billed partridge (Arborophila rubrirostris), hoogerwerf’s pheasant (Lophura hoogerwerfi), sumatran peacock-pheasant (Polyplectron chalcurum), sumatran ground-cuckoo (Carpococcyx radiceus viridis), rajah scops-owl (Otus brookii), sunda bulbul (Iole virescens), rueck’s blue-flycatcher (Cyornis ruckii), rufous-vented niltava (Niltava sumatrana), wallace’s hawk-eagle (Spizaetus nanus nanus), and large green-pigeon (Treron capellei). 
Reptile and Amphibi; Such as water monitor (Varanus rudicollis), slender-toad gecko–new recorded species (Cyrtodactylus sauraya n.sp.), and southeast asian soft-shelled turtle (Amyda cartilaginea); spotted litter frog (Leptobrachium hendricksoni), horned frog (Megophrys aceras), saint andrew’s cross toad (Pelophryne brevipes), peat swamp frog (Limnonectes malesianus), van kampen’s frog (Rana kampeni) and yellow-banded ceicilian (Ichtyophis paucisculus). 

TOURISM

Interesting places within the national park: 

1. Gurah; viewing and enjoying natural panorama, valley, thermal spring source, lake, and waterfall; observing animals and plants such as rafflesia, orangutan, birds, snake and butterflies. 
2. Bohorok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center; seeing the attraction of orangutans in their rehabilitation centre, enjoying the river panorama, camping and birdwatching. 
3. Kluet; boating on rivers and lakes, trekking through coastal forest and caving. Kluet is also a habitat of Sumatran tigers. 
4. Sekundur; camping, caving and observing animals. 
5. Ketambe and Suak Belimbing; research on primates and other animals. Research facilities are provided here including accommodation and library. 
6. Mount Leuser (3,404 m asl) and Mount Kemiri (3,314 m asl); mount climbing. 
7. Alas River; river rafting along the Alas River, start from Gurah- Muara Situlen-Gelombang for a 3-day trip.

Cultural attractions outside the park include the Lake Toba Festival held in June and the Malay Culture Festival held in July in Medan. 

Best time to visit 

Between June and October 

Facilities 

Office, communication radio, information center, guest house, camping ground, footpath, observation tower and shelter. 

How to get to the location (by car)

The National Park can be reached from Medan and the access routes are: 
Medan - Kutacane 240 km or 5 hours. 
Kutacane - Gurah/Ketambe 35 km or 30 minutes. 
Medan - Bohorok/Bukit Lawang 60 km or 1 hour. 
Medan - Sei Betung/Sekundur 150 km or 2 hours. 
Medan - Tapaktuan 260 km or 10 hours. 

MANAGEMENT

The national park is managed by Balai Besar Taman Nasional Gunung Leuser as a Technical Management Unit of the Directorate General of Forest Protection and Nature Conservation, Ministry of Forestry. 
Balai Besar Taman Nasional Gunung Leuser was divided by 4 divisions of conservation area: Division of Alas Gayo Conservation Area in Blangkejeren. 
Division of Aceh Selatan Conservation Area in Tapaktuan. 
Division of Langkat Selatan Conservation Area in Bukit Lawang. 
Division of Langkat-Sekundur Conservation Area in Besitang. 

OFFICE

Balai Besar Taman Nasional Gunung Leuser 
Jl. Sukacita No. 12 Kelurahan Sukamaju Medan, Johor, Medan, North Sumatra Province 
Phone : +62-61-7879378 Fax. : +62-61-7879378 E-mail : tnglaceh@indosat.net.id