Lorentz National Park
The Park lies within Irian Jaya
Province, and the administrative Jayawijaya, Paniai, Merauke (Southern
Division), Fak-fak, Mimika and Enarotali districts. It stretches for over
150km, from the central cordillera mountains in the north to Arafura Sea in the
south. Access is by air from Jayapura to Wamena and Timika 04º00'-5º15'S,
137º14'-138º20'E.The Dutch Colonial Government gave the first protection status
in 1919 with the establishment of Lorentz Nature Monument. In 1956, the
protected status was abolished due to conflicts with local people over
unresolved land ownership. In 1978, it has established as a Strict Nature
Reserve (Cagar Alam) by the Indonesian Government with an area of 2,150,000ha width.
In March 1997 it was declared National park by the Ministry of Forestry, which
includes the eastern extension (Mt. Trikora, Mt. Rumphius, Habbema Lake area),
coastal and marine areas.
With the total area is 2,505,600ha,
about 0.6% of Irian Jaya's total size, the Park can be divided into two very
distinct zones: the swampy lowlands and the high mountain area of the central
cordillera. The central cordillera itself can be subdivided in the eastern part
and the western part on the basis of geology and vegetation types, the
north/south line at approximately Kwiyawagi village being the dividing line. The
central mountain ranges are the southern portion of two colliding continental
plates, which are causing the mountain range to rise. The lowering and rising
of the sea level during the glacial and inter-glacial periods of the
Pleistocene, along with continuous activity in the mobile belt which
characterizes the contact zone of the two colliding lithospheres plates, has
continued to promote the great biodiversity of the island of New Guinea in
general, and in the Lorentz area in particular. Large tracts of the mountain
range, and especially the area formed by the traditional lands of the Amungme
(or Amung) are rich in mineral deposits - especially gold and copper.
The Carstenz or Jaya Peak section of
the Jayawijaya Mountain Range still retains small ice caps. It is one of only
three equatorial highlands (Sierra Nevada region in the Andes, and Mt. Kenya,
Kilimanjaro, Ruwenzori in E.Africa) that is sufficiently high altitude to
retain permanent ice, but note that Lorentz glaciers are receding rapidly. Some
3,300ha of snowfields REMAINED IN 1992. The main snowfields comprise five
separate areas of ice on the outer margins of Mount Puncak Jaya. These include
two small fields, which feed the Meren and Carstenz glaciers, and a small
hanging glacier on the Carstenz Pyramid.
Puncak Jaya's summit consists of
several peaks (Jayakesuma / Carstenz Pyramid 4,884m, Ngga Pulu 4,862m, Meren
4,808m) that developed from Tertiary rocks (Miocene). This high area was still
covered by wide ice caps (13sq.km) in 1936. These ice caps melted down to an
area of just 6.9 km in 1972 and further reduced to 3.3 sq.km by 1991. The
remaining ice is now divided into three patches the North Wall Firn, the Meren
and Carstenz glacier with only 3 sq.km of ice left. Based on climatic data, a
deficit mass balance will continue as the future trend.
The lowland area is a wide swampy
plain, covered with virgin forest and intersected by countless winding rivers
and streams, mostly tidal. The largest of these rivers empty into the shallow
Arafura Sea, which separates the island of New Guinea from Australia.The
Regional Physical Planning Program for Transmigration recognized 9
physiographic types and regions (beaches, tidal swamps, meander belts, peat
swamps, alluvial valleys, alluvial fans, dissected terraces, mountains and
alpine summits) with 13 major land systems.
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