Mount Mundo Perdido

Mount Mundo Perdido, "the Lost World", is a steep massif rising to 1,760 m in Viqueque Municipality of Timor-Leste. Surveys found "the finest montane forests in Timor-Leste" there, and BirdLife International recognised a 16,100 hectare Important Bird Area including Mount Laritame^[1].

Some 63 bird species have been recorded, including 22 restricted-range species of the Timor and Wetar Endemic Bird Area, the endangered Timor imperial-pigeon and a few critically endangered yellow-crested cockatoos^[1]. A population of pygmy blue-flycatcher on the upper slopes is more than 1,700 km from the nearest known populations^[1].

Steep, rocky terrain has kept agriculture off the upper slopes, which hold the finest montane forest in Timor-Leste^[1]. The site is one of the country's three most important areas for orchids, and several new orchid species were collected there^[1].

The massif is steep-sided and rocky, rising to 1,760 m, with Mount Laritame at 1,390 m about 5 km to the north^[1].

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

The massif's steep, rocky upper slopes have kept it largely free of agriculture^[1].

A 2007 Darwin Initiative report described Mundo Perdido as the largest remaining area of closed-canopy tropical montane forest on Timor and a highly suitable protected-area site. It was designated a protected landscape in 2016^[2].

Mundo Perdido is known mainly to birders and biologists for its montane forest, orchids and endemic birds^[1]. Access to the interior is described as difficult^[1].

The nearest settlement is Ossu, in Viqueque Municipality, and the massif itself is described as inaccessible.

Its steep terrain has protected the upper forest from farming, and the site qualifies as an Important Bird Area^[1].