Matang Mangrove Forest is located south-west of Taiping, near Kuala Sepetang. It covers a an area of about 1,018 km² almost half of Peninsula Malaysia's mangrove forests. It was gazetted as a permanent forest reserve in 1903 concentrating on regenerating this forest for research, education and recreational activities. Mangrove trees can live brackish water.

The trees in Matang mangrove forest have a life cycle of about 30 years. After that, it will be cut down and turn into charcoal or used as building wood. The new shoots from the ground will then grow up naturally through a process called vivipary or some planted by humans to take over the place of the cut-down trees. However, the management kept one 'Bakau Minyak' as the oldest in this forest (left middle row photo).

Matang mangrove forest has a few type of mangrove trees. The most common I think is the 'Bakau Minyak' (Rhizophora apiculata), directly translated to English would be 'Oil Mangrove' tree. This species of mangrove tree produces high quality charcoals. Another important one in this ecology is the Berembang tree (Sonneratia caseolaris) which fireflies like (see right middle row photo).

Another important mangrove tree is the Nibong palm. This palm tree has thorns on its trunk, can withstand saltwater and was used by Captain Francis Light to built the Fort Cornwallis stockade when he first landed on Penang. Nipah tree (Nypa fruiticans) found in mangrove area is also important to human beings as its leave was used as roof in the old malay house and a juice called nira can be extracted from its flower stalks.

Apart from trees, migration birds have been spotted, some from as far as the Tundra in Siberia. Some of the birds are Mongolian Plover, Grey Plover, Commonm Sandpiper and Common Redshank. There are charcoal factories with dome shape oven around the forest area. Trees that were cut down will be taken to the charcoal oven to be heated with fire as shown in the last row right photo.

Apart from trees and animals, there are some chalet for people to rent and stay in this jungle. Lastly, kindly help keep Taiping clean by throwing rubbish into proper place.