Ulu Temburong National Park is a highly important landmark for nature preservation in Brunei Darussalam. This park was built in 1991 by the government.
This massive wilderness covers exactly 550 square kilometers of land, which makes up nearly 40% of the entire southern Temburong District. The area also known as “Green Jewel of Brunei”.
A Home to A Variety of Flora and Fauna
The park located far away from modern cities. For many decades, no direct roads connected this isolated region to the capital city.
Even though Brunei has Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Bridge that was built in 2020 to link the districts, cars still cannot drive into the deep forest. Therefore, people who want to visit Ulu Temburong National Park must choose an “adventurous” water journey.
The total lack of road access protects the land from logging and heavy pollution. It also allows more than 200 different species of giant dipterocarp trees to grow together in just one small hectare of land.
This deep geographical isolation makes the rainforest a perfect home for thousands of unique living creatures. Scientists from many countries love studying this park because it connects different types of wild environments together.
It is especially famous worldwide as a wonderful hotspot for amphibians. Researchers have successfully recorded 66 different species of frogs living here, including a special tree frog.
Amazingly, a tiny 25-square-kilometer section of this forest holds nearly two-thirds of all the frog species that belong to the entire island of Borneo.
The heavy green trees also hide some of the rarest and most beautiful wildlife in Asia. The thick canopy of leaves provides a safe home for the long-nosed proboscis monkey and the Bornean gibbon.
Visitors can often hear the loud "morning calls" of these gibbons. Shy predators like the Sunda clouded leopard and the small Malayan sun bear also walk across the dark forest floor.
Visitors can also find over 400 different bird species, including the massive rhinoceros hornbill and the rare Bornean bristlehead.
Even the insects are unusual. The park features giant Rajah Brooke’s butterflies and rare exploding ants. These unique ants will actually blow themselves up to protect their nests.
Protecting the Green Jewel for the Future
Brunei manages Ulu Temburong very strictly because they want to keep it safe for a long time. Universiti Brunei Darussalam runs the famous Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre inside the forest, which they established in 1990 for international experts to live and study tropical nature.
To stop crowds from damaging this fragile environment, the government keeps 99% of the park completely closed to regular tourists under the Heart of Borneo initiative. Only 1% of the forest stays open for quiet, careful ecotourism, ensuring that the Green Jewel remains a healthy living museum of nature for future generations.
