Mount Halimun Salak National Park is located in West Java Province with an area of 113,357 hectares. This area is one of the important areas for protecting the broadest lowland rain forest in the area and as a catchment area for the surrounding districts.
This national park covers mountainous areas in the altitude range between 500-2.211 m above sea level. The mountains included in this area are North Halimun Mountain (1,929 m), Mount Ciawitali (1,530 m), Gunung Kencana (1,831 m), Bottle Mountain (1,850 m), Mount Sanggabuana (1,920 m), South Kendeng Mountain m), Mount Halimun Selatan (1,758 m), Mount Endut (east) (1,471 m), Mount Sumbul (1.926 m), and Mount Salak (peak 1 as high as 2,211 m and peak 2 with a height of 2,180 m).
The rich biodiversity found in this region has long attracted the attention of visitors and researchers from local and abroad. Recorded more than 700 species of flowering plants live in natural forests within the park area.
Types of natural forest in this national park include lowland rain forest (100-1,000 m) dominated by Collin Zone (500-1000 m), lowland rainforest or sub montane (1,000-1,500 m) and central rain forest or montane forest (1,500-1,929 m).
At an altitude of 1,000-1,500 m can be found trees that have a height of up to 40 m with a diameter of 120 cm tree, while at a lower altitude below 1,000 m can be found higher trees.
In this area recorded 13 types of rattan and 12 species of bamboo. There are types of bamboo which are the original plant of West Java namely bamboo cangkore (Dinochloa scandens) and bamboo tamiang (Schyzostachyum sp.).
The results of inventory and collection of orchids in Mount Halimun Salak National Park to date has recorded about 258 species belonging to 74 types. Forty-seven species are listed as endemic species of Java Island and five species are new records for Java Island. The number of orchids is one-third of the number of species of orchids on the island of Java, which recorded as many as 731 species.
In this area can also be found various types of mushrooms and due to the forest humidity in this region, the fungus can be seen at any time of the year, especially during the wet season between September and May.
In this national park area, there are various types of ecosystem included the protected rare fauna. Historically, this area is the habitat of Javan Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) and Javanese tiger (Panthera tigris scondaicus).
Within this area, there are also 61 species of mammals, some of which include endemic species of Java and endangered species. Endangered species that can still be found include leopard Java (Panthera pardus melas), forest cats (Prionailurus bengalensis), Javanese gibbons (Hylobates moloch), surili (Presbytis comata), lutung (Trachypithecus auratus), jungle dog (Cuon alpinus javanicus), skunks (Mydaus javanensis) and lemurs (Nycticebus coucang).
This national park is recorded to have 244 species of birds or the equivalent of 50% of the total bird species that live in Java and Bali. Around 32 species are endemic in Java with limited distribution and there are 23 species of migratory birds.
This national park has been designated by BirdLife, an international organization of bird conservation, as an important bird region or region Important Bird Areas (IBA) with ID075 (Gunung Salak) and ID076 (Gunung Halimun). This area is very important to save the species of Javanese eagle (Spizaetus bartelsi), Javanese fleet (Apalharpactes reinwardtii), Java ciung (Cochoa azurea), Java plaques (Otus angelinae) and Java gelatik (Padda oryzivora).
In this region there are about 50 species of reptiles, 27 species of amphibians, 26 species of dragonfly and carrying 31 species of fish, most of which (37.5%) are classified as gobiid and eleotriad fish, such as freshwater complementary fish species, – such as paray (Rasbora aprotaenia), bogo (Channa gachua), beunter (Puntius binotus), eel (Monopterus album), kehkel (Glyptothorax platypogon), bungkreng (Poeciba reticulata) and Sicyopterus cf microcephalus.
There are so many biodiversity and ecosystem that visitors can find does not mean that visitors can be free to do as they please without any sense of responsibility. We need a sense of responsibility to maintain and care for this national park area as well as to participate in conserving the biodiversity and ecosystems in Mount Halimun Salak National Park.
