A Supplemental HCVF Assessment on the Sumatran Tiger ...

FINAL REPORT Tiger <strong>HCVF</strong> <strong>Supplemental</strong> <strong>Assessment</strong> – Serapung FMU
3.6 Secondary Tiger Reports from Local People
In support of the ecological work, other teams carried out over 20 field days of detailed
questionnaire-based surveys of the local communities and groups living both in close
proximity to the study area and in the wider forest block. The main aims of the
sociological component of this assessment were to provide the following types of data:
(1) Reports of tiger sightings relating to historic/current tiger presence and
distribution;
(2) Reports relating to past and recent tiger-human conflict events, including poaching
and tiger attacks on humans and livestock;
(3) General knowledge of local people relating to tigers, including perspectives and
attitudes regarding tiger-human conflict.
Conflict between tigers and humans is both clear evidence of tiger presence, and also
a critical determinant of the likely viability of tigers in the future. Occurrences of conflict
between humans and tigers, particularly where deaths of people or material losses
occur (e.g. livestock) are, by their nature, events which are usually well remembered by
local people.
Tiger-human conflict events occurring in the FMU region during the recent past were
identified by questioning of a wide range of local people, company employees and
seasonal inhabitants of the local area. Reports of specific conflict events were treated
as preliminary data until they had been confirmed by identification and follow-up
interviews with direct eye-witnesses.
For all data arising from local people considerable effort was expended in the process
of confirming and cross-checking reports via multiple independent sources and the
seeking of first-hand witnesses wherever possible. While hundreds of local people
were interviewed during the assessment, detailed witness accounts and reliable
respondent questionnaires were obtained from 49 individuals representative of the key
adjacent regions (see Figure 8 below). Respondents were not randomly selected from
the communities but were specifically targeted individuals considered most likely to
represent their communities and/or likely to have a specific knowledge of tigers and
their habitat.
Figure 8. Map of Serapung FMU area showing the main settlements and concentrations
of local people interviewed during the assessment.
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