A Supplemental HCVF Assessment on the Sumatran Tiger ...

FINAL REPORT Tiger <strong>HCVF</strong> <strong>Supplemental</strong> <strong>Assessment</strong> – Serapung FMU
4.3.2 Attitudes and Perceptions of Local People Regarding Tigers
During the respondent interviews a set of formal questions were posed in order to
examine basic knowledge, experience, attitudes and perceptions of local people
regarding Sumatran tigers and the root causes of human-tiger conflict. Results
derived from these questionnaires (summarised in Table 7 and Table 8 below)
show that only 30% of respondents had ever seen tigers directly while 37% of
respondents had encountered their tracks. Despite this, 81% of people believe
tigers are present in the vicinity of where they live, and 91% perceive tigers to be
living in the wider Siak-Pelalawan forest block.
Culturally the tiger is important to the local communities in this area, with 51% of
people actively involved in performing traditional rituals believed to protect
themselves from the tiger. The local belief system which links tiger attacks with
breaches of local adat law by the victim, remains widely adopted (44% of
respondents perceived this as the primary cause of conflict). A further 22%
thought that conflict was caused by a mixture of forest clearance and breaches of
adat. Forest clearance alone was perceived to be the primary cause of humantiger
conflict by 17% of all respondents interviewed.
Incursions by non-resident tigers (harimau pendatang), upsetting the generally
harmonious co-existence between resident tigers (harimau penunggu) and
villagers was perceived by 13% of the respondents as a primary cause of humantiger
conflict.
During the limited time available neither the field teams nor local respondent
teams obtained any evidence of tiger poaching (driven by illegal trade in skins,
bones or other tiger body parts) by local people in the vicinity of the FMU.
However, the bones of one tiger opportunistically trapped along the Yos Trail in
response to intense human-tiger conflict in 2002 were, in early 2004, sold on to a
travelling trader from Medan via neighbouring HPH company contractors.
However, local knowledge regarding the economic rewards to be accrued
through poaching and illegal trade of tigers is prevalent in the region, facilitated
by the high mobility and constantly changing composition of migrant workers,
fishermen and sea-faring traders. Evidence for the threat presented by ongoing
poaching and illegal trade was obtained during this assessment, where a recently
caught tiger skin and bones were identified by the team as for sale at the nearby
port island of Penyalai.
Table 7. Tiger-related questions posed to respondents (n = 49) and percentage of
affirmative responses received.
Respondent Question % Yes
Q1. Are there tigers present in the area in which you live? 81
Q2. Have you ever seen a tiger? 30
Q3. Have you ever heard the sound of a tiger? 65
Q4. Have you ever seen tiger paw prints? 37
Q5. Have you ever heard of someone being attacked by a tiger? 88
Q6. Are there any tigers in Serapung I forest concession? 77
Q7. Are there any tigers in the forests in the Siak-Pelalawan forest? 91
Q8. Have you ever partaken in a tiger blessing ceremony? 51
Q9. Is the number of signs of tigers increasing? 28
Q10. Is the number of cases of conflict increasing? 38
Sumatran Tiger Conservation Program Pg 40/68