Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, National park in Sumatra, Indonesia.
Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park stretches about 350 km along the southern end of the Bukit Barisan range, averaging only 45 km wide. It covers 3,568 km² of montane, lowland, coastal and mangrove forest across Lampung, Bengkulu and South Sumatra. The northern part is mountainous, rising to Gunung Pulung at 1,964 m, while the southern section forms a peninsula.
The Dutch colonial administration declared the area a nature reserve in 1935 to prevent logging and poaching. Nearly fifty years later, the territory gained national park status.
The park lies in the territories of Lampung and Bengkulu provinces, and a signboard with a welcome message stands a few kilometres from Liwa, the administrative capital of West Lampung Regency. Since the 1970s squatters have settled inside the park, and by 2006 about 127,000 people occupied some 55,000 hectares. WWF found more than 450 km2 of park land used for growing coffee and now works with multinational coffee companies to keep illegally grown coffee out of their supply chains.
Visitors should travel with a guide and choose entry points in advance, as many areas are reachable only on foot. The drier months between January and August are considered more favorable for hiking and animal spotting.
Grammatophyllum speciosum, an orchid species with long clusters that can reach up to 10 feet (3 m) in height, grows here. The dense forest sections also shelter small populations of Sumatran rhinoceros, which are rarely found anywhere else in the world.
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