The 4,884 metres high Puncak Jaya, within the national park

Map of Lorentz National Park

Lorentz National Park (Indonesian: Taman Nasional Lorentz) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in southwestern and central Papua province of Indonesia, which is located on the western half of the island of New Guinea.

Understand

Lorentz National Park is the largest protected area in Asia and contains Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid), which at 4,884 m is the tallest mountain between the Himalayas and the Andes and the highest island peak in the world. Puncak Jaya is surrounded by equatorial glaciers, which are rapidly retreating due to the effects of global warming. It is sometimes considered to be one of the Seven Summits.

Flora and fauna

Lorentz National Park has 630 documented species of bird (around 95% of the total number of bird species in Papua) and 123 mammalian species. Birds include two species of cassowary, 31 dove and pigeon species, 500 species of cockatoo, 60 species of kingfisher and 145 species of sunbird. Six bird species are endemic to the Snow Mountains including the Snow Mountain quail and Snow Mountains robin, 26 species are endemic to the Central Papuan Ranges while three are endemic to the South Papuan Lowlands. Threatened species include the southern cassowary, Alpine woolly rat, southern crowned pigeon, Pesquet's parrot, Salvadori's teal and Macgregor's giant honeyeater.

The mammal species include the long-beaked echidna, short-beaked echidna, and four species of cuscus as well as wallabies, quolls and tree-kangaroos. Endemic to the Sudirman Range is the dingiso, a tree-kangaroo species only discovered in 1995.

See

• 1 Carstensz Glacier. With an elevation of over 4600 metres, Carstensz Glacier is one of the last few glaciers found in the tropics, but due to global heating, the glacier is not expected to exist at all by 2030. (updated Apr 2022)

Do

Mountaineering

• Trek Papua, ☏ +62 812 476 28708, trekpapua@gmail.com. Organiser of Carstensz Peak Expeditions and other adventures in Papua. Contactable on WhatsApp.