[caption id="attachment_90052" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Lake Sentarum (Kompas/Wawan H Prabowo)"][/caption]
More than a year ago, I wrote this to my surprise that there is such place as precious as this here in our country. Without international recognition and publication, It will be very sad for us to find it sitting duck amidst heavy shelling of human greed and destroyed sometime in the near future.
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The inland of Kalimantan is mysterious yet interesting to explore. Unpredicted beauty of unique natural quality is often surprisingly emerged amongst its reddish soil and rain forest threatened from massive illegal logging. At the province of West Kalimantan, the heart of Borneo presents a mixture of unique ecosystem and breathtaking nature called Lake Sentarum.
Lake Sentarum is a 132.000 ha National Park situated at Kapuas Hulu regency, some 700 kilometers from Pontianak city. This part of upper stream of Kapuas River shapes like a basin surrounded by low mountain ridges, with an average elevation of only 35-50 m, extending over 6,500 sq km. Protection status of wildlife preserve was given in 1982, prior to its National Park status established in 1999.
With abundant amount of animal and plant species living in it, Lake Sentarum National Park is largest wet land ecosystems in the country. Much of its basin is a vast floodplain, consisting of seasonal lakes with average depth of 8 meters freshwater swamp forest and peat swamp forest. The peat moss submerged during a long rainy season gives reddish brown color to the water of the river.
A scientific research shows that the lake was formed during Pleistocene period. This is the main reason of how the lake become home for a large number of endemic fish species. There are 266 fish species living in the lake and 78 per cent of which are endemic. Famous fish species from Lake Sentarum are arwana (Sclerophages formosus), belida (Chitala lopis), toman (Channa micropeltes), betutu (Oxyeleotris marmorata), and jelawat (Leptobarbus hoevenii).
There are 141 mammal species, 26 reptile species, and 310 bird species living in the area. Among the endangered species are rangkong (Rhyticeros cassidic), proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus), orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), Crocodylus porosus, Tomistoma schlegelli, Crocodylus siamensisi, Leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), and white stork (Mycteria cineria).
[caption id="attachment_90060" align="alignright" width="298" caption="Lake Sentarum (Kompas/Indira Permanasari)"]
Being a vast floodplain and swamp forest, the bottom of Lake Sentarum provides nutrition to feed some 207 species of plants ranging from herb vegetation to tall trees. The short plants, such as Eichhornia crassipes, Polygonum spp., and Calophyllum spp, are protected by larger trees of Iron wood (Eusideroxylon zwageri), Shorea sp., and Dipterocarpus sp.
With its large biodiversity, Lake Sentarum can be one of the best play ground for wildlife adventurer, biodiversity scientists, nature fanatics, or landscape and wildlife photo hunters. During sunrise and sunset, water of the lake creates dramatic environtment for various objects under the sun.
