Meru Betiri National Park is a

national park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

in the province of

East Java East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean border its northern and ...

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 Gui ...

, extending over an area of 580 km² of which a small part is marine (8.45 km²). The beaches of the park provide nesting grounds for

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

turtle species such as leatherback turtles, hawksbill turtles, green turtles, and olive ridley turtles.

Geography and climate

Meru Betiri National Park has a varied topography reaching from a plain coast to highlands with an altitude of almost . The tallest mountains within the park are Mount Gamping (538 m), Mount Butak (609 m), Mount Sukamade Atas (801 m), Mount Gendong (840 m asl), Mount Mandilis (844 m) and Mount Betiri (1,192 m). The topography along the coast is generally hilly to mountainous. There are only few sandy plain coasts, most of them located in the west, such as Rajegwesi Beach, Sukamade Beach, Permisan Beach, Meru Beach and Bandealit Beach. Some rivers across Meru Betiri NP are Sukamade River, a perennial river, Permisan River, Meru River and Sekar Pisang River that flow to the South coast. The Meru Betiri area is influenced by monsoon wind. During November to March, the westerly wind brings rainfall to the area, whereas the dry season occurs during April to October. The average annual rainfall is between 2300 and , with 4 dry months and 7 wet months in average.

Vegetation

As a result of its diverse topography, Meru Betiri NP contains five distinct vegetation types: * Coastal vegetation, found around Sukamade Bay and Meru Bay. This vegetation includes the '' Barringtonia asiatica'', '' Calophyllum inophyllum'', ''

Hibiscus tiliaceus ''Hibiscus tiliaceus'', commonly known as the sea hibiscus or coast cottonwood, is a species of flowering tree in the mallow family, Malvaceae, with a pantropical distribution along coastlines. It has also been introduced to Florida and New ...

'', '' Terminalia catappa'', and '' Pandanus tectorius''. *

Mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

vegetation, found at the eastern side of the Rajegwesi Bay as the outlet of Lembu and Karang Tambak Rivers, Meru Bay and Sukamade Coast. The dominant vegetations are '' Rhizophora'', '' Avicennia'' and '' Bruguiera''. At the outlet of the Sukamade River, there is ''

Nypa fruticans ''Nypa fruticans'', commonly known as the nipa palm (or simply nipa, from ms, nipah) or mangrove palm, is a species of palm native to the coastlines and estuarine habitats of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the only palm considered adap ...

''. *

Swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

vegetation, found at the back of the mangrove forest of Sukamade. Some tree species here are ''

Manilkara kauki ''Manilkara kauki'' is a plant in the subfamily Sapotoideae, and the tribe Sapoteae of the family Sapotaceae; and is the type species for the genus ''Manilkara''. It occurs in tropical Asia from Indo-China (Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet ...

'', ''

Gluta renghas ''Gluta renghas'' (rengas) is a species of plant in the family Anacardiaceae. It is found in Indonesia. Gluta, renghas Flora of Malesia {{Anacardiaceae-stub ...

'', ''

Alstonia scholaris ''Alstonia scholaris'', commonly called blackboard tree, Scholar Tree, Milkwood or devil's tree in English, is an evergreen tropical tree in the Dogbane Family (Apocynaceae). It is native to southern China, tropical Asia (mainly the Indian subco ...

'', and '' Sterculia foetida''. * Lowland tropical rain forest, including among others tree species of '' Pterospermum'', '' Tetrameles nudiflora'', '' Ficus variegata'', ''

Diospyros cauliflora ''Diospyros'' is a genus of over 700 species of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs. The majority are native to the tropics, with only a few species extending into temperate regions. Individual species valued for their hard, heavy, d ...

'', '' Aglaia variegata'', '' Dracontomelon mangiferum'', ''

Bischofia javanica ''Bischofia javanica'', or bishop wood, is a plant species of the family Phyllanthaceae. It and the related '' Bischofia polycarpa'' are the only two members of genus '' Bischofia'' and tribe Bischofieae. These species are distributed throughou ...

'', ''

Dysoxylum gaudichaudianum ''Dysoxylum gaudichaudianum'', commonly known as ivory mahogany, is a species of rainforest tree in the family Meliaceae, native to Malesia, Queensland, and some southwest Pacific islands. Description The ivory mahogany is a large tree growing ...

'', '' Pseudobombax septenatum'', '' Litsea'', and '' Plectocomia elongata''. * Rheophytic vegetation, found in the

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (Anoxic waters, anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in t ...

areas, such as at the Sukamade area. The dominant vegetation species here is the '' Saccharum spontaneum''. The rare parasitic plant '' Rafflesia zollingeriana'' was rediscovered in Meru Betiri NP.

Fauna

The park provides habitat for many other protected animals, including 29 species of mammal and 180 species of bird. Among them are the

banteng The banteng (''Bos javanicus''; ), also known as tembadau, is a species of cattle found in Southeast Asia. The head-and-body length is between . Wild banteng are typically larger and heavier than their domesticated counterparts, but are otherw ...

, Javan leopard,

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species i ...

, long-tailed macaque, Sumatran dhole,

Javanese flying squirrel The Javanese flying squirrel (''Iomys horsfieldii'') is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. It is found in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country an ...

leopard cat The leopard cat (''Prionailurus bengalensis'') is a small wild cat native to continental South, Southeast, and East Asia. Since 2002 it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List as it is widely distributed although threatened by hab ...

, Javan muntjac, and

green peafowl The green peafowl or Indonesian peafowl (''Pavo muticus'') is a peafowl species native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. It has been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2009 because the global population has been declining ...

. The beaches of the park provide nesting ground for

leatherback turtle The leatherback sea turtle (''Dermochelys coriacea''), sometimes called the lute turtle or leathery turtle or simply the wikt:luth#English, luth, is the largest of all living turtles and the heaviest non-crocodilian reptile, reaching lengths of ...

hawksbill turtle The hawksbill sea turtle (''Eretmochelys imbricata'') is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Eretmochelys''. The species has a global distribution, that is la ...

s, green turtles, and olive ridley turtles. Meru Betiri National Park is known as the last habitat of the

Javan tiger The Javan tiger was a ''Panthera tigris sondaica'' population native to the Indonesian island of Java until the mid-1970s. It was hunted to extinction, and its natural habitat converted for agricultural land use and infrastructure. It was one of ...

(''Panthera tigris sondaica'') which is now considered extinct, with the last sighting having been recorded in 1976. Due to a research in 1997 found a tiger paw prints at size , so the Forestry Ministry has agreed to monitor the existence of the Javanese tiger by camera trap in 2011.

Conservation

The Meru Betiri Forest area was first appointed as a protected forest by the Dutch Colonial Government in 1931. In 1972 the Meru Betiri Protected Forest (500 km²) was appointed as a wildlife sanctuary, prioritized for protecting the habitat of the then endangered

. In 1982 the sanctuary was expanded to its current extent of 580 km² including a marine area of 845 ha. In 1982 the sanctuary was declared a National Park, which finally has been designated as such in 1997.

References

External links

Meru Betiri National Park Management Authority
* {{authority control National parks of Indonesia Geography of East Java Tourist attractions in East Java