The beauty of the easternmost region of Indonesia spread across its natural resources. You can find that each province comes with its flaunt of nature and biodiversity, including the West Papua province, which has around three amazing national parks to visit. So, if you want to see the beauty of nature, check out these tourism sites.
Teluk Cendrawasih National park
Starting with the most popular natural tourist site in the region, Teluk Cendrawasih national park. The beautiful landscape of natural marine life and land are the ecosystem of heavenly biodiversity. It is one of the places in the world that is known as the place to witness the underwater kingdom with rich fish and marine species.
Teluk Cendrawasih or Cendrawasih bay is located between Manokwari regency and Wondana regency Bay. Not only that, but the area is 100% natural due to help conserve the marine biota in the area. What makes it amazing is that the Cenderawasih Bay is also circled by many more regencies; Yaropen, Yapen, and Nabira regencies around it.
The unique area with ranges of islands sprawled around makes the bay a heavenly place for marine biota. The location is the biggest marine national park in Indonesia. Almost all west Papua ecosystems are found in this location with more than 150 types of coral reef families, 209 types of fishes, and many more.
Coral species in this national park are one of the largest habitats in the world. The marine biodiversity exceeds more than 500 coral species with 900 more coral fishes. Even more impressive is the natural whale shark habitat, which is one of the greatest things to see. With that ranges of beauty, the national park is also a nice tourism site.
Indonesia officially inaugurated the place as a national park in 2002. Since then, the place has been practicing natural conservation to rise into one of the best coral reef habitats in the world. The eco-tourism sites in the areas include ranges of islands, such as Rumberpon, Mioswaar, Nusrowi, Roon, Yoop, and Wondesi as conservation areas.
Lorentz National Park
Cendrawasih Bay is not the only popular site in West Papua. Lorentz national park is another site that is known by domestic and international audiences. One of the fascinating facts is that the park is known as one of the UNESCO world heritage sites in Indonesia. It was way back in 1999, and currently, the national park has kept on growing in popularity.
All go with reasons. Lorentz national park span across Papua province, which explains its status as the biggest protected area in Southeast Asia. In number, the national park spans about 25,056 km2. The outstanding stretch has reached up to the Puncak Jaya at the northwestern edge of the national park.
The Lorentz park is the best epitome of rich biodiversity in the area. Ecologically it covers a range of biomes, areas, and attitudinal arrays. Some of the areas include montane rainforest, marine areas, tidal freshwater swamp forest, mangrove, alpine tundra, and the equatorial glacier. That is why the park has a huge range of fauna and flora ecosystems in it.
One of the spotlights is the West Papua Bird Conservation which houses 630 documented species of bird. Some of them are endemic species and endangered species, such as Pesquet’s parrot, southern cassowary, and many more. As the park spans across many lands, it is also a home of many indigenous ethnic groups. Some of them are Dani, Asmat, Nduga, Sampan, and Among.
Due to the huge span of the park, Lorentz conservation and sustainability are highly affected by the local communities. The government and local collaboration help success the conservation process in the areas. Thus, the park deserves attention from the local government for better preservation in the area.
Wasur National Park
Despite being largely unheard of, the region also has a national park that is closely adjacent to Papua New guinea. The park is called Wasur, a national park with a range of ecosystems, such as scamps, forests, rivers, savanna, and many more. With that range of lands, the park has hundreds of floras that include Terminalia, mangrove, and melaleuca.
Unfortunately, the exact location of the Wasur national park is not in west Papua. The wetland park is located in Papua close to Merauke. However, the place has a lot of charm. It includes the natural habitat of 358 bird species and 80 of them are endemic. It also has diverse fauna from endemic to rare ones, such as Black0necked stork, little curlew, and many more.
Being one and the first conservation province, the region displays its natural beauty through three different national parks. Each of them has ranging fauna and flora that highlight the rich biodiversity of the region. You can witness the marine life in Cendrawasih bay, see the exotic endemic animals at Lorentz, and see the natural beauty at Wasur.
