Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve

Matang covers about forty thousand hectares of mangrove along the Perak coast and has been worked under a formal management plan since 1902 - the forest is divided into blocks, clear-felled in rotation at around thirty years, replanted where natural regeneration is insufficient, and the cycle has run for over a century with the resource intact, which is why it is repeatedly cited as the best-managed mangrove forest in the world and studied as a model. The wood goes mostly to charcoal, and the kilns at Kuala Sepetang - beehive-shaped brick domes where mangrove logs burn slowly for weeks - can be visited and are still working. There is a boardwalk through the forest, boats up the channels, and a bird list including migratory waders on the mudflats and the milky stork, which is rare. Fireflies are on some channels at night.

What you actually see

• A century of rotation - blocks cut and replanted on a thirty-year cycle since 1902.
• Working charcoal kilns - brick domes at Kuala Sepetang burning mangrove for weeks.
• A boardwalk and boat channels - the routes through the managed forest.
• Migratory waders - on the mudflats, with the rare milky stork among them.

When to go

All year. A day.

Honest expectations

This is a working production forest, not a wilderness - blocks are clear-felled and it looks like it. Mosquitoes are severe. Boat and kiln visits are arranged locally. It is hot and shadeless on the water.

Nearby

Taiping and its lake gardens are east; Kuala Gula bird sanctuary is north.