Danau Sentarum National Park
Encyclopedia
The Danau Sentarum National Park is a national park
National park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

 protecting one of the world's most biodiverse lake systems, located in Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

 Island, West Kalimantan
West Kalimantan
West Kalimantan is a province of Indonesia. It is one of four Indonesian provinces in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. Its capital city Pontianak is located right on the Equator....

 Province, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

. It lies in the upper Kapuas River
Kapuas River
The Kapuas River is a river in the Indonesian part of Borneo island, at the geographic center of Maritime Southeast Asia. At in length, it is the longest river of Indonesia and one of the world's longest island rivers...

 basin some 700 kilometres upstream from the delta. The basin is a vast floodplain
Floodplain
A floodplain, or flood plain, is a flat or nearly flat land adjacent a stream or river that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge...

, consisting of seasonal lakes, freshwater swamp forest
Freshwater swamp forest
Freshwater swamp forests, or flooded forests, are forests which are inundated with freshwater, either permanently or seasonally. They normally occur along the lower reaches of rivers and around freshwater lakes...

 and peat swamp forest
Peat swamp forest
Peat swamp forests are tropical moist forests where waterlogged soils prevent dead leaves and wood from fully decomposing, which over time creates a thick layer of acidic peat...

. The National Park is located in the western part of this basin, where three-quarters of the seasonal lakes occur. Approximately half of the park consists of lakes, while the other half consists of freshwater swamp forest.

An area of 800 km² was first gazetted as Wildlife Reserve in 1982, which in 1994 was extended to 1,320 km² when it became a Ramsar site. In 1999 it was declared a National Park, however a National Park Authority was only established in 2006.

Danau Sentarum National Park has a rich fish fauna with around 240 recorded species, including the Asian Arowana
Asian arowana
The Asian arowana comprises several varieties of freshwater fish in the genus Scleropages. Some sources differentiate these varieties into multiple species, while others consider the different strains to belong to a single species, Scleropages formosus...

 and Clown Loach Botia
Clown loach
The clown loach, Chromobotia macracanthus, is a tropical freshwater fish belonging to the Cobitidae family. It is the sole member of the Chromobotia genus. It originates in inland waters in Indonesia on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo...

. There have been 237 bird species recorded including the Storm's Stork
Storm's Stork
The Storm's Stork, Ciconia stormi is a large, approximately long, stork with black and white plumages, red bill, orange bare facial skin, red legs and yellow orbital skin. Both sexes are similar. The young has duller plumage and bare skin....

 and Great Argus
Great Argus
The Great Argus, Argusianus argus is a brown-plumaged pheasant with a small blue head and neck, rufous red upper breast, black hair-like feathers on crown and nape, and red legs. The male is among the largest of all pheasants. He measures in total length, including a tail of , and weighs . It has...

. Of the 143 mammal species 23 are endemic to Borneo including the Proboscis Monkey
Proboscis Monkey
The proboscis monkey or long-nosed monkey, known as the bekantan in Malay, is a reddish-brown arboreal Old World monkey that is endemic to the south-east Asian island of Borneo...

. There is a relatively large population of the endangered Orangutan
Orangutan
Orangutans are the only exclusively Asian genus of extant great ape. The largest living arboreal animals, they have proportionally longer arms than the other, more terrestrial, great apes. They are among the most intelligent primates and use a variety of sophisticated tools, also making sleeping...

s present in the park. The 26 reptile species include the False Gavial and Estuarine Crocodile.

The lakes support a large traditional fishing industry. The western part of the upper Kapuas floodplain is inhabited by almost 20,000 people, 88% of which are Malay fishermen. About 3,000 people live in about 20 village enclaves within the Park.
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