Sebangau National Park - SSI Camp

*Picture copyright by FF, taken on November 2009

The management of Sebangau National Park is divided into three areas: Pulang Pisau, Palangkaraya, and Kasongan. If you go from Palangkaraya or Pulang Pisau, you will most probably stay in SSI camp, which is a very simple place for accommodation with shared mandi. SSI is short for Sebangau Sinatra Indah, which was then a logging company which oversees the logging concession in the area. Since 2000-something, the logging activities has stopped and the government decided in 2004 that it should be made a national park because of the biodiversity there, such as Orangutans, Proboscis Monkeys, etc. Thus, the peat swamp forests in Sebangau National Park are actually secondary forests and the SSI camp have been a place for researchers to stay and examine the reforestation efforts. Currently SSI camp has been managed by WWF, in cooperation with the national park management office. If you want to know more, please contact them right away.

Oh, FYI, if you notice the top of the SSI camp building, it has decorations depicting the beaks of the hornbill birds which are native in Kalimantan. That is why most traditional houses in Kalimantan, or in Palangkaraya at least, have these hornbill decor.