Gunung Leuser National Park

North Sumatra & Aceh, Indonesia

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Gunung Leuser National Park, straddling the provinces of North Sumatra and Aceh in Indonesia, is one of the last great strongholds of tropical biodiversity in Southeast Asia. Encompassing over 7,900 square kilometers of rugged mountains, dense rainforests, and winding rivers, the park is a critical component of the UNESCO-listed Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra.

It is globally renowned as one of only two places on Earth where orangutans, tigers, elephants, and rhinoceroses still coexist in the wild, making it a sanctuary of extraordinary ecological significance. The park’s namesake, Mount Leuser, rises to 3,119 meters and anchors a landscape that transitions from lowland peat swamps to mist-shrouded montane forests.

This altitudinal diversity supports an astonishing array of life, including over 10,000 plant species, nearly 600 bird species, and more than 200 species of mammals. Among its most iconic residents are the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan and Sumatran tiger, both of which rely on the park’s intact forest corridors for survival. The park also shelters rare flora such as the giant Rafflesia arnoldii and Amorphophallus titanum, the world’s largest and tallest flowers, respectively.