Way Kambas National Park
Way Kambas National is situated on the coast of Lampung province on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Bounded by the Java Sea to the east, and to the southeast and west by rivers the park is almost entirely flat (elevation between 0-60 metres a.s.l.). As such the park is characteristic of the coastal lowland plains of eastern Sumatra. Approximately 1,300 km2 in extent, the park was originally established as a wildlife reserve in 1937, but between 1954 and 1974 was intensively logged. In 1978 it was proposed as a national park, with provisional declaration in 1989 and final declaration in 1997.

Way Kambas National Park is a large national park covering 1,300 square kilometres in Lampung province, southern Sumatra, Indonesia.Way Kambas consists of swamp forest and lowland rain forest, but was extensively logged before becoming a reserve in 1972 so there is little primary forest. The reserve still has a few Sumatran Tigers and reasonable numbers of elephants. It is also provides excellent birdwatching, with the rare White-winged Duck among the species present. Accommodation is available at the village of Way Kanan, where there is a small guest house.

Habitat
Much of the park is dominated by a mosaic of Imperata cylindrica grassland and secondary forest habitat types, primarily a result of intensive logging operations in the past, but maintained by frequent fires and seasonal flooding. A central core area of the park is characterised by relatively intact primary tropical rainforest.

Access
There are four possibilities to enter the park. Rajabasa station in Bandar Lampung (Tanjung Karang) to Way Kambas, also named Plang Hijau. The trip will take 2-3 hours (100 km). Panjang station in Bandar Lampung to Sribawono (1 hour). In Sribawono get on a bus to Way Jepara (1 hour) and from there with a minibus to Plang Hijau. Rajabasa station to Metro (1 hour) and from Metro to Way Jepara. Merak ferry terminal in Bakaheni, where the ferry from Java arrives, to Plang Hijau. Permits for the park are available at the entrance in Plang Hijau.

Accomodation
In Way Kanan, in the park, are some simple bungalows. You should bring food.

Trekking
Plang Hijau-Way Kanan (13 km) 3 hours From Way Kanan, by boat along the rivier Way Kanan to the river mouth in Kuala Kambas

Flora
A large part of the park is overgrown with Serdang Palms (Livistona hasselti). The lowland forest consists mainly of trees from the Dipterocarpacea family.

Fauna
Because of the vast areas of grass-land, Way Kambas is a reserve where you can easily spot the animals.

Animals
Sumatran Elephant (a lot of them are very dangerous due to ill-treatment in the adjacent elephant training school!), Siamang, White-handed Gibbon, Long-tailed Macaque, Pig-tailed Macaque, Silvered Leaf Monkey, Malayan Tapir, Lesser Mousedeer, Large Mousedeer, Barking Deer, Malayan Sunbear, Wild Boar, Wild Dog, Sumatran Tiger, Sumatran Rhinoceros, Clouded Leopard, Pangolin, Temminck's Golden Cat, Leopard Cat, Agile Gibbon, Common Otter.

Reptiles
False Ghavial, Estuarine Crocodile.

Birds
White-winged Wood-duck, Masked Finfoot, Milky Stork, Lesser Adjutant, Asian Dowitcher, Storm's Stork, White-bellied Sea-eagle, Brahminy Kite, Grey-headed Fish-eagle, Lesser Fish-eagle, Osprey. The Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus) is a subspecies of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). It is the biggest land animal in Indonesia and is found only on the island of Sumatra. They are found in the island's forests at altitudes of 1 750 m, but they prefer to live in lowland forests. They also have a large home range; they move from the mountain area to the coastal lowland forest during the dry season and then retreat to the hills when the rainy season comes. A number of factors, such as forest fires, human resettlement, logging, timber estates, plantations, agriculture expansion, shifting cultivation, and road building commonly cause the fragmentation and degradation of the island's elephant habitat. These activities, which are increasing year by year, have resulted in a rapidly shrinking elephant habitat and are responsible for the increase in the number of conflicts between elephants and humans each year.

Since the 1980s, the Indonesian Government has tried to solve this conflict by three main activities:

1. First, population management (Tata Liman). This involves moving or translocating elephants from the fragmented or degraded habitat to a more suitable habitat. Every year, until the current fiscal year, the government has allocated a budget for translocating solitary, isolated or troublesome elephants.
2. Second, elephant empowerment (Bina Liman). This involves habitat rehabilitation, fencing, community education/extension, and training troublesome elephants to participate in human activities.
3. Third, utilization of trained elephants from the Elephant Training Centres (Guna Liman). This involves using domesticated elephants for forestry, agriculture and recreation activities.

The Sumatran elephant, the smallest of the Asian elephants, is facing serious pressures arising from illegal logging and associated habitat loss and fragmentation in Indonesia. The island's elephant population has come under increasing threat from rapid forest conversion to plantations. As forests shrink, elephants are increasingly closer to fields and cultivated land, generating conflict with humans that often result in the death of the elephants by poisoning or capture, as well as economic losses to humans.

However, this effort is not successful because the demand for domesticated elephants or trained elephants is very low. This creates a serious problem for the government because the greater the number of elephants staying at the Elephant Training Centres the more the government must spend on maintaining them. Since fiscal year 1997/1998, between 50 and 55 percent of the annual national budget (APBN) for elephant conservation was allocated for operating Elephant Training Centres. Thus, it appears that domesticating the elephant population is not the best method of solving the elephant problem in Indonesia.

Wild elephants
The wild Sumatran elephant was formerly found in eight provinces on Sumatra. However, the dense and tangled vegetation of the tropical rain forest there makes it difficult to estimate the number of wild elephants. In 1929, Van Heurn made the first attempt at an estimate, based on the amount of ivory exported from Sumatra, and came up with a figure of 3 600 wild elephants.

Domesticated elephants
When kings or sultans ruled Sumatra, there must have been a substantial number of elephants in captivity. They were used in warfare and for ceremonial purposes. With the decline of the sultans and the ascendancy of the Dutch colonial power, the capture and domestication of elephants died out.

In the 1980s when the country was developing very fast, large areas of forests and woodlands were opened up by various economic sectors. As a result, some elephant habitats became fragmented and some home ranges were reduced by human activities. Since that time, conflicts between elephants and communities around the forests have increased.

The Sumatran elephant is an endangered species and protected both by Indonesian and international regulations. Therefore, since 1985, to solve elephant conflicts and to conserve the elephant, the government has set up six Elephant Training Centres on Sumatra.