The impact of fire in palm oil estate on the bird and butterfly species diversity: Case study in RAJ Oil Palm Estate, South Sumatera

Abstract

RAJ oil palm is one of the oil plantation estates in South Sumatera that experienced land fires in 2018 with the burning estimated around 110 ha, and are believed to have a negative impact reducing on species diversity of birds and butterflies in the area. The study was conducted to identify and analyze the comparison of species diversity of birds and butterflies, loss and gain of the species in burnt and unburnt areas after one year of fire. Data collection was carried out in two types of land cover (grass and gelam) in pairs for burnt and unburnt lands after one year of fire. To inventory, the birds and butterfly species were done at the active time of animals, by using strip transect method, parallel in burnt and unburnt areas with a total of 3 repetitions in each type of land cover. The estimation of the impact was obtained by reckoning the loss and gain of birds and butterfly species from the burnt and unburnt area, the level of species richness, evenness, and similarity. The results showed that the total number of animal species found in both observation lines for each type of land cover (grass and gelam) for unburnt and burnt areas were 29 species of birds and 6 species of butterflies. Generally, it can be stated that the values of H and Dmg for birds were relatively greater in the burnt area compared to in the unburnt area. On the contrary, the values for butterflies were greater in the unburnt area than in the burnt area. The percentage of species loss for the bird was smaller than the gain in the burnt area compared to unburnt land, 24% of species loss and 28% of species gain in the grassland, and 14% of species loss and 33% of species gain in the gelam land. For butterflies, the percentage of species loss was relatively greater than the percentage of species gain due to fire, 67% for the species loss and 33% for the species gain.