Mamberamo Foja Wildlife Reserve is a large

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

, in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Papua Province Papua is a province of Indonesia, comprising the northern coast of Western New Guinea together with island groups in Cenderawasih Bay to the west. It roughly follows the borders of Papuan customary region of Tabi Saireri. It is bordered by the ...

. It covers an area of 16,610 km², and extends along the

Mamberamo River The Mamberamo (''Indonesian: Sungai Mamberamo'') is the second longest river on the island of New Guinea, after Sepik River (1,146 km) and third largest in Oceania by discharge (5,500 m3/s) volume after Fly River (7,500 m3/s) and Sepik (7,000 m3/ ...

and its tributaries from the foothills of the

Central Range Central Range, Central Mountains, or Central Mountain Range may refer to several ranges of mountains, including: * Central Range, New Guinea * Central Range, Taiwan * Central Range, Trinidad and Tobago * Central Range, Venezuela See also * Cent ...

to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

.Petocz, Ronald G. (1989). ''Conservation and Development in Irian Jaya: A Strategy for Rational Resource Utilization''. Brill, 1989. Sungai Mamberamo

Geography

The southern part of the reserve is in the

Lakes Plains The Mamberamo Lakes Plains (Dutch Meervlakte, Malay ''dataran danau-danau'') are a large, flat low-lying area of the Mamberamo River basin in the Indonesian province Papua on the island of New Guinea. The plain is defined by the meandering tribu ...

region, a landscape of freshwater swamp forests and lowland rain forests south of the Central Range. The eastward-flowing

Tariku River The Tariku or Rouffaer River is a river in the northern part of the Indonesian province of Papua. It is one of the major tributary of Mamberamo River with a total length of .

and westward-flowing

Taritatu River The Taritatu or Idenburg River also called Baliem River is a river in the northern part of the Indonesian province of Papua. It is the largest tributary of Mamberamo River with a total length of . Name During the Dutch colonial era it was known ...

meander through the region forming oxbow lakes and wetlands, and join to form the northward-flowing Mamberamo. The reserve follows the eastern bank of the Mamberamo and includes the

Foja Mountains The Foja Mountains (Foja Range, Foya Mountains) ( id, Pegunungan Foja) are located just north of the Mamberamo river basin in Papua, Indonesia. The mountains rise to , and have 3,000 square kilometers of old growth tropical rainforest in the inte ...

, which reach an elevation of 2193 meters. The Foja Mountains are covered in montane rain forests above 1000 meters elevation. The lower reach of the Mamberamo includes Rombebai Lake, New Guinea's largest. The river delta includes freshwater swamp forests and coastal mangroves.

Ecology

The reserve encompasses diverse plant communities, including montane rain forests, lowland and hill rain forests, freshwater swamp forests, flooded grasslands and savannas, and mangroves. The majority of the reserve is in the

Northern New Guinea lowland rain and freshwater swamp forests The Northern New Guinea lowland rain and freshwater swamp forests is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of northern New Guinea. Setting The Northern New Guinea lowland rain and freshwater swamp forests extend across the northern lowl ...

ecoregion, while the portions of the Foja range above 1000 meters elevation are in the

Northern New Guinea montane rain forests The Northern New Guinea montane rain forests is a tropical moist forest ecoregion in northern New Guinea. The ecoregion covers several separate mountain ranges lying north of New Guinea's Central Range and south of the Pacific Ocean. Geogra ...

ecoregion.

History of the reserve

The reserve was gazetted by the Indonesian government in the 1980s, and later expanded to include the Foja Mountains. For decades conservation NGOs have proposed that the reserve become a national park. At a two-day seminar on 7 and 8 November 2014 organized by the Yayasan Lingkungan Hidup, a local NGO, villagers requested that the government convert the wildlife sanctuary to a national park.Yomo, Albert (2014). "Local Community Wants Mamberamo Foja Sanctuary to Become National Park". ''West Papua Daily''. Published 11 November 2014. Accessed 6 June 2014

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References

{{coord missing, Indonesia Protected areas of Western New Guinea Geography of Papua (province)