A New Possibility for Biodiversity Conservation on Totally Fragmented Forest: A Case Study in the Menoreh Hills Community Forest, Central Java, Indonesia

0694-B1

Muhammad Ali Imron Djuwantoko^[1]

ABSTRACT

Java is known as the island where natural forest is totally fragmented. Presently, about 2.3% of all original lowland forest remains. Many experts believe that forest in Java will be lost, and its biodiversity will become extinct. On the other hand, the people have been managing their community forest for many years and using multi-species plants for their forest gardens. The objective of the research was to investigate the role of community forestry in the conservation of avifauna diversity in the Menoreh Hills, Central Java, Indonesia.

The study area was the Community Forestry area in the Menoreh hills, Central Java. It covers 673 265.5 ha. The study area was divided into three levels of altitude: < 400 m above sea level (ASL), 400-800 m ASL, and > 800 m ASL. The Time Species Counts Method was used for collecting the data of avifauna. Data collection was conducted in June to August 2002. The data were analysed by scoring each species to determine the common species and rare species in the study area.

It was found that community forestry in the Menoreh hills has supported conservation of biodiversity of birds in Java. The area has 116 species of birds and also supports the most endangered species on the island, the Javan Hawk Eagle (Spizaetus bartelsi) and four others raptors. People have been managing their land and providing a new habitat for birds in the neighbouring areas. This shows that bird conservation is still possible in the totally fragmented forest in Java.

INTRODUCTION

1. Back Ground

The island of Java has been known as the most densely population in Indonesia. Natural forest is covering less than 10% of the total area. The deforestation has taken place since 16^th century. Now, the natural forest is totally fragmented. VanBalen (1999) has identified that Java has a long record of forest clearance, which on west Java dates back to 4800 BP the irrigated rice field system was introduced in central and East Java during the Mataram period (8^th -10^th century) and established towards the 17^th century. Between 1830 and 1870, the Cultuurstelsel introduced by the Dutch colonial government created huge areas of monoculture especially Coffee Coffea spp. and Sugarance Saccarum officinarum. Nowadays most of Java’s natural forest has been converted into agricultural, village and wastelands.

Upland forest is still in good condition in many places, but virtually all lowlands forest has been cleared with the exception of isolated patches along the south coast, mainly on south facing slopes. The forest in Java Island has totally fragmented. Fragmentation was most prominent during the implementation of Cultuurstelsel. It is very likely that a number of species have been eliminated since 17^th century. A number of species have never been found again in Java (VanBalen, 1999).

Many experts believe that forest in Java will be finished, and its biodiversity will also extinct. VanBalen (1984) seldom or never saw 30 lowland bird species that were still common there earlier in this century. The lost of bird species in Java island needs great concern on it, because it could be used for indicating and predicting the rate of species lost in others island of Sunda such as Borneo, Sumatra caused by forest clearance (MacKinnon, 2000)

In other hand, people have developed community forestry for many years. Many critical areas have changed to be community forestry. The total are of community forestry in Indonesia has almost achieved 1.265.460,26 Ha. (Supriadi, 2002)

People on Menoreh hill have been managing the community forest traditionally. People has traditional way on their land and treat them as specific as possible such as use the wooden trees for the steppes area and treat flat areas for non wood product tree e.g. coffee and cloves (Supriyandono, 2000). This research was focussing on how is the role of community forestry on Menoreh hill to the biodiversity conservation, especially on avifauna diversity.

2. Objective

The research objective was to investigate the roles of community forestry on the biodiversity conservation on Menoreh Hills, Central Java Indonesia.

STUDY AREA AND METHODS

1. Study Area

The Menoreh hill is situated in Central Java, in the three districts of two provinces. The districts are Purworejo, and Magelang district that are including to Central Java Province, Kulonprogo district that is including in the Jogjakarta Province. The hill is situated in 07⁰30’ to 07⁰60’ N and 110⁰10’to 110⁰25’ E. The elevation ranges from 300 to 999 m.

Figure 1. Situation Map of Menoreh hills Central Java, Indonesia

Biogeography of Menoreh hill is a part of Java Island. The species composition is similar to the Borneo, Sumatra and Malaysia. Community forestry on Menoreh hills area provided more complex habitat than areas around. Menoreh hills occupy 67,326.5 hectares. Private lands that contain of community forestry are larger than state forest. People are using multi species of plant for their community forestry. Teak (Tectona grandis), Sonokeling (Dalbergia lativolia), Mahogany (Sweitenia macrophyla), Sengon (Paraserianthes falcataria), and Sungkai (Peronema canescen) are species that mainly planted by farmers for wood production. Farmers also plant non-wood product plant such as crop, medicine plantation, cattle food, and fruit plants. People also plant many kinds of crop under, medicine plantation, and cattle food under trees. Crop plants are Cassava (Manihot utilisma), Corn and also rice (Oryza sativa) in several places. We could find medicine plant and cattle feed plant such as Kapulaga (Elletarria cardamomum), Cloves (Euginia caryophyllus) Kaliandra (Caliandra calortirsus), and fruit plant such as Mango (Mangifera indica), Coconut (Cocos nucifera), and etc.

2. Methods

a. Data Collection

Data has collected for 3 months, in June 2002 until August 2002. The Menoreh hills was divided into three levels of altitude; < 400 m asl, 400-800 asl, and > 800 asl. The data collection was using Timed Species Counts (TSCs) Counts. This method takes advantage of the fact that common species are likely to be first seen soon after starting a survey while rare species, if seen, are almost as likely to be first seen at the end of the survey as the start. This method involves dividing a one-hour observation period into six 10-minute blocks. A list then made of the species seen in each 10-minute period (or the 10-minute interval in which the species the species is first seen is noted in checklist). Once a species has been recorded it is then ignored for the rest of the hour (Sutherland, 2000). The census periods were 10 - 15 periods in each location. Pameroy and Tengecho suggested these periods for the TSCs method.

b. Data Analysis

The data was analyzed by scoring the species found in the checklist. Species seen in the first 10 minutes scored 6, the second 10 minutes scored 5, the third 10 minutes scored 4, the fourth 10 minutes scored 3, the fifth 10 minutes scored 2, the sixth 10 minutes scored 1, and those has not see in the list scored 0. These values are averaged over a number of census periods.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

a. Result

The data has shown that the research has found 116 bird species are including to 30 family on Menoreh hills community forestry area (Fig. 2) Silviidae, Nectarinidae and Muscicapidae were families that contained more species than another. Families that rarely found were Picidae, Paridae, Pachycephalidae, Orilidae, Meropidae, Motacilidae, Corvidae, Cocalidae, Ciconiidae, Arthamidae, and Ardedidae. Those families were only found one species in each family.

The research has found that number of species in each altitude level is different. The number of species in the < 400 m asl level is 75 species. Number of species that only be found in this level is 15 species and could not be found in others level. Number of species that also could be found in the 400-800 m asl is 15 species and 5 species also could be found in the > 800 m asl. But in other hand 40 species could be found in every level of altitudes. The number of species that could be found in the 400-800 m asl is 95 species. Twenty-six species only could be found in the 400-800 m asl. The number of species that also could be found in the > 800 m asl is 12 species. The number of species that only be found in the > 800 m asl is 5 species (Table 1).

Figure 2. The Number of species in each Family has found in Menoreh Hills Community Forestry

Figure 3. Number of Species has found in each altitude level

Table 1.Number of Species that only could be found in each altitude level and number of species that could be found in two and three level of altitude.

Data analysis has found that scores of Glossy Swiflet (Collocalia fuchiphaga), Ashy tailorbird (Orthotomus ruficeps), and Sooty-headed bulbul (Pycnonotus aurigaster) are higher than others in each altitude levels, except in the < 400 m asl. It means that these species are the common species could be found in Menoreh hills (Table 2).

The rarest species that could be found in the Menoreh hills area was vary in each level of altitude (Table 2). Rarest species in the < 400 m asl were Javan Hawk Eagle (Spizaetus bartelsi), Green Jungle Fowl (Gallus varius), and Horsfield’s Babbler (Malacocinda sepiarium). Rarest species in the 400-800 m asl were Asian Glossy Starling (Aplonis panayensis), Long-billed Spiderhunter (Arachnothera robusta), and Hair-crested Drongo (Dicrucus hottentotus). In the > 800 m asl, the rarest species were Blue-and White Flycatcher (Cynoptyla cyanomelata), Banded Kingfisher (Lacedo pulchella), and Volcano Swiflet (Collocalia vulcanoarum). The rarest species for all altitude were Long-billed Spiderhunter (Arachnothera robusta), Blue-and White Flycatcher (Cynoptyla cyanomelata), and Volcano Swiflet (Collocalia vulcanoarum)

b. Discussion

Bird communities prefer more complex habitat than monoculture forest such as teak forest and pines in state forest in Java island. Multi species of plants provide many kinds of food for birds. For Nectarivorous, nectar will be always provided by community forest and also for flycather, and raptor. In order to increase the number and diversity of wildlife, Management should provide more landscape variation in the areas (Primack,1998). It seems that farmer in Menoreh hills indirectly provided landscape variation their community forest and support on the diversity of birds. The number of species that were be found in the Menoreh community forestry, 116 species, were explained this situation

Combination of the various kinds of species that were be planted, steppes areas, and local people wisdom on their natural resource resulted the best habitat for raptor. At least, We could find 5 raptor species. The raptors are Spotted Kestrel (Falco molucensis), Changeable Hawk Eagle (Spizaetus cirratus), Black Eagle (Ictineatus malayensis), Crested Serpent -Eagle(Spilornis cheela bido) and also Javan hawk Eagle (Spizaetus bartelsi). It could be used for predicting that the ecosystem of Menoreh hill provides a suited habitat for the top of tropic.

Table 2. The score of Commonest and rarest bird species in each altitude level in Menoreh hill community forestry.

Javan Hawk Eagle has been surviving in these community areas. The IUCN status for this eagle is Endangered species. Supriadi et all, 2000 explained that the population of Javan Hawk Eagle presently, estimated very low population. The record on this species only found 66 location in Java island, excluding Menoreh hills.

Although in high pressure, Java’s forest still bring opportunity to the conservation of many bird, especially on endangered species such as Javan hawk eagle. VanBalen (1999) found that Java’s forest although fragmented, apparently still constitute an adequate reserve system for the eagle, especially with the recently discovered presence in relatively small and isolated forest fragments. The size of fragments rather than distance to neighboring blocks determines the occupancy of forest areas. Short term of persistence is enhanced by the existence of the eagle as an apparently effective meta-population.

VanBalen (1999) has given perspective about forest bird in Java. Java’s population growth and inherent pressure on lowland habitat area and integrity do not give much reason for optimism about the future of Java and Bali’s forest birds. As we deal with a fait accompli due to the extremely advanced state of forest loss and fragmentation, every single piece, large or small that is left of lowland rainforest should be preserved and every effort should be taken to link up reserves and forest patches into major forest blocks, as suggested for the Javan hawk Eagle

Another finding is local believe and local wisdom to the birds and it ecosystem. Most of Menoreh hill population is Javan. The people has been known has many perspectives about natural resources and birds. As the upland people, they are understood that good management on the upland area will also bring good effects to the lowland areas. They also prohibit people to hunt birds in their Kampung (sub villages) such we found in Keceme, Nglambur(>800 m asl), Wonogiri and Nyemani (400-800 m asl) sub villages.

Three ways of conserving biotic communities are to set up protected areas, applied the conservation efforts out side of protected areas, and improving biotic communities in the degraded environment (Primack, 1998). The way of thinking to support on Biodiversity conservation on Menoreh hills community forestry are the second and third ways. It is time to believe people to manage their land with their perspective of ecosystem and support their capability to manage their own forest. Now, We could understand that although there are a natural process has happened in the community forestry on biodiversity conservation, but in other hands we could also understand that people could manage their lands in Java. It is no time to still pessimistic about biodiversity conservation in Java island. It is still having opportunity to conserve biodiversity on totally fragmented forest.

CONCLUSIONS

Community forestry on Menoreh hills has supported on conservation of biodiversity of birds in Java. The area has 116 species of birds that spread over 67,326.5 hectares. This area also support the most endangered species in Java, Javan Hawk Eagle (Spizaetus bartelsi) and four others raptors. People have been managing their land and providing a new habitat for bird in the neighboring areas. This condition could bring us a prediction to the bird conservation on totally fragmented forest in Java Island. There is still possibility to the bird conservation by people on totally fragmented forest.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have to thank for LKPPM RELUNG and its members (Arif, Benuh, Fajar, Yustin, Rina) that make this research possibly, the Findland Embassy that financially support this research by their co-operation to LKPPM RELUNG. I also thank to my field team members (Anto, Pak Dhe, Gembil, Swiss, Arif, Jeffry, Mbok Dhe, Indri, Hesti, Peni and also Miwati). Special thank for dik Ika that support me to finish this paper.

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