Mount Legumau

Mount Legumau is a protected landscape in eastern Timor-Leste, within Lautém and Baucau municipalities. It was listed among the country's protected areas under the 2016 national protected-area law^[1]. It is a large mountain forest area of roughly 360 km² straddling the two municipalities.

The mountains of eastern Timor-Leste hold a distinctive set of forest birds, many restricted to Timor and nearby Wetar.

Mount Legumau is a forested mountain area, within a region where lowland tropical and monsoon forest gives way to hill forest at higher elevation^[2].

Eastern Timor-Leste has limestone plateaus and terraces as well as ranges along the south coast, such as the Paichao Range^[2].

Timor has a tropical monsoon climate with a wet season and a dry season.

The eastern districts are home to Fataluku-speaking communities, and archaeological sites in Lautém have been dated to over 40,000 years^[2].

Mount Legumau was designated as a protected landscape in 2016, the year in which Decree-Law 5/2016 created the National System of Protected Areas^[1]. A CEPF-funded project in 2017 to 2019 carried out rapid biological surveys of Mount Legumau, Mount Maurei and Mount Fatumasin.

Nino Konis Santana National Park, with Lake Ira Lalaro and the Ili-kere-kere rock art, lies close by in Lautém^[3].

The area is reached from Dili via Baucau and Lospalos^[3]. The nearest settlement in the row is Luro.

A CEPF project reported that only four of Timor-Leste's 46 protected areas had completed ecological surveys or boundary demarcation, and Legumau's rapid survey added to that knowledge.