A Supplemental HCVF Assessment on the Sumatran Tiger ...

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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
FINAL REPORT Tiger <strong>HCVF</strong> <strong>Supplemental</strong> <strong>Assessment</strong> – Serapung FMU Table 8. Identification of primary causes of human-tiger conflict as perceived by local community respondents (n = 49). Cause of Human-Tiger Conflict % Due to incursions by non-resident tigers (harimau pendatang) 13 Due to forest clearance 17 Due to forest clearance and breaches of adat law 22 Due to local peoples' breaches of adat law 44 Due to the need for more effective local tiger blessing ceremonies 4 4.4 Landscape Analysis 4.4.1 Minimum area required for Sumatran tigers Results of the 1992 Population and Habitat Viability Analysis (PHVA) for the Sumatran tiger indicate that the size of area required to support a Sumatran tiger population should be sufficiently large enough to provide a minimum carrying capacity of 50 tigers, and optimally at least 100 tigers (see section 2.4.2). The population density of tigers that any forest area is able to support, and hence its carrying capacity, is in turn dependant upon prey density (see section 2.4.3). In Sumatra a best estimate for densities of tigers is between 1 and 4 tigers per 10,000 ha (See: Franklin et al. 1999, Griffiths 1994, Carbone et al. 2001, Franklin 2002) where 4 tigers per 10,000 ha reflects high prey densities such as those found in the highly productive lowland forests of Way Kambas National Park. A conservation area designed for Sumatran tigers should therefore possess an area of between 250,000 ha and 1,000,000 ha in order to fulfil optimal population viability criteria of the PHVA models described above, assuming that only limited management intervention is possible. A smaller area (equivalent to the lower range of 50 adult tiger individuals recommended by PHVA models) is sufficient where effective conservation management and strong protection can be implemented. Dependent upon tiger density, to achieve a carrying capacity of 50 individuals an area of between 125,000 and 500,000 ha is required. 4.4.2 Past, Present, and Future Land-Use Tiger Conservation Unit (TCU) 150 consists of the Siak-Pelalawan and Kerumutan forest blocks, separated by the Kampar River, but considered for the tiger to constitute a single population. The combined area of these two blocks in 2001 was 1,060,000 ha. In the recent past practically the entire extent of TCU 150 has been selectively logged. Aerial flyovers and inspection of satellite imagery for the remaining forest areas in the Siak-Pelalawan forest block show a relatively intact forest canopy in the more remote regions, but widespread existence of both previously active and active logging rails. Patches of high levels of disturbance and forest clearing were mostly associated with easily accessible regions along major rivers and the coast. In Riau province the post-productive phase of many logging concessions (HPH) is characterised by conversion to other land types such as industrial timber (HTI) or oil-palm plantations (FWI/GFW 2002). In the Siak-Pelalawan block all the previously active HPH concessions have now ceased logging operations. All but one of these HPH concession areas have now been totally, or in part, converted Sumatran Tiger Conservation Program Pg 41/68 100
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