The impact of fire on herpetofauna species diversity : case study in PT Waimusi Agroindah, Sumatera Selatan

Abstract

PT Waimusi Agroindah (PT WMA) is one of the oil palm companies that experienced land fires in 2015 with the burning estimated arround 400 ha. This caused PT WMA to be accused of reducing biodiversity in the area. Therefore, this research was conducted to identify the impact of fire on herpetofauna diversity, community similarity and percentage species loss or gain. The observation was done by using visual encounter survey (VES) method in 2017 and 2019 in 2 types area, that is Unburnt (UBA) and post-burnt area (PBA). The result of the study showed that PBA 2017 has the highest of species and individual number, and also richness index (S = 15; N = 61 individuals; Dmg = 3.41). Meanwhile, the similarity index (IS) increased from 0,54 in 2017 to 0.87 in 2019. In addition, the percentage of loss in 2017 was 36.36% to 23.08% in 2019. In addition, the percentage of loss decreased from 36.36% in 2017 to 23.08% in 2019. The impact of a fire is not always negative, this can be seen from the presence of herpetofauna species found in post-burnt areas that are not even found in unburnt areas.