Qualla: The Green Jewel You Can Only Reach by River

The Green Jewel You Can Only Reach by River: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Christian Trede, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. There is no road into Ulu Temburong. To reach Brunei's first and largest national park, you board a longboat and ride upriver through narrows where the canopy closes overhead and the sound of the outboard motor bounces off walls of green. This inaccessibility is not an oversight -- it is the point. Since its protection in 1991, the 550 square kilometers of lowland and montane rainforest that make up Ulu Temburong have remained essentially untouched, earning the park its nickname: the Green Jewel of Brunei.

Image: Christian Trede | CC BY-SA 3.0 de

The Green Jewel You Can Only Reach by River: A Kingdom's Quiet Commitment

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit SomeBaL_, CC BY-SA 2.0. Brunei is one of the smallest countries in Southeast Asia, yet it has set aside a remarkable proportion of its territory as protected forest. Ulu Temburong alone covers roughly 40 percent of the Temburong District, an exclave separated from the rest of Brunei by a wedge of Malays...

Image: SomeBaL_ | CC BY-SA 2.0

The Green Jewel You Can Only Reach by River: Fifty Meters Above the Forest Floor

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Accassidy, CC BY 3.0. The park's signature experience is the Belalong Canopy Walkway, a series of steel towers connected by suspended walkways that rise approximately 50 meters above the ground. Reaching it requires an hour-long trek from park headquarters along a network of boardwalks and stairways s...

Image: Accassidy | CC BY 3.0

The Green Jewel You Can Only Reach by River: Wings and Voices in the Canopy

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JP Bennett from Yamato, Japan, CC BY 2.0. Four hundred species of butterfly inhabit the park, and the most celebrated is the Rajah Brooke's birdwing, named for James Brooke, the British adventurer who once ruled Sarawak as his personal kingdom. The males are unmistakable: jet-black wings banded with vivid emerald green, ...

Image: JP Bennett from Yamato, Japan | CC BY 2.0

The Green Jewel You Can Only Reach by River: Life at the River's Edge

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Accassidy, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Temburong and Belalong Rivers are more than transport corridors; they are the park's circulatory system. Their confluences create microhabitats where giant forest ants, Camponotus gigas, patrol trails the width of a human finger. Lantern bugs cling to bark with their improbab...

Image: Accassidy | CC BY-SA 4.0

The Green Jewel You Can Only Reach by River: Fragile and Irreplaceable

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pangalau, CC BY-SA 4.0. Ulu Temburong's remoteness is its greatest protection, but remoteness alone is not a conservation strategy. The park sits within one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet -- Borneo's lowland and montane rainforests host more tree species per hectare than anywhere else on e...

Image: Pangalau | CC BY-SA 4.0