Ujung Kulon National Park

Ujung Kulon National Park is situated in the province of Banten, formerly under the pronincial government of West Java. This site lies exactly in the westernmost of Java Island; thus people call it "Ujung Kolon" that literally means the westernmost. The site has been developed into a nature preserve upon suggestion from Dutch academics who arrived in Java Island in 1820 A.D. Most of them were the members of an organization for scientific research considering the numbers of floras and faunas habituating in the areas.

Those researchers then began to collect and make records on the objects found there. Further, they decided to set this site as a center for science development in Asia-Africa. The areas of Ujung Kulon National Park encompass Krakatoa, Panaitan, and Peucang Island.

It was once the Dutch colonial government restricted a programme to establish Ujung Kulon National Park as accused of damaging encosystem in the surrounding. Further progress on the establishment of a science museum in this site, indeed, showed that the founders of Ujung Kulon National Park deliberately Killed floras and faunas around in terms of enriching scientific data for their own country. This activity happened from 1853 A.D. up to 1910 A.D. Therefore the Dutch government issued a policy of protecting the ecosystem in Ujung Kulon in 1910 A.D. The implementation of the policy did not run well however; and the ecosystem in Ujung Kulon got worse. The damaging of ecosystem just continued until 1939, before the second Europe War blew up.

Since the Indonesian Independence in 1945, Ujung Kulon, which was formerly neglected, began catching enthusiastic attention from the Indonesian government. The government then set Ujung Kulon into national park in 1958. The Ministry of Forestry then registered Ujung KulonNational Park as the World Heritage Site in the category of tropical rain forest situated in Java Island to UNESCO. Finally, Ujung Kulon National Park was officially listed as the World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1992. Now, this site is under the supervision of directorate general of forest protection and nature conservation.