The Estimation Loss and Gain of Mammal Species Diversity due to Oil Palm Plantations: A Case Study of BPME Estate, Riau, Indonesia

Abstract

The existence of palm oil plantation development allegedly resulted in a ecological losses, including the sustainability of mammalian diversity. So far the ecological losses to the diversity of wildlife species, especially mammals, have not been widely known. Therefore, in February 2018 a direct observation was conducted at 5 observation paths with Strip Transect Method and simultaneous data retrieval, three repetitions at 8.00-10.00 a.m. and 16.00-18.00 p.m. In addition, there are 10 Rodentia traps and 15 camera traps on each observation path. The analysis results obtained the total number of species and wealth of the highest species on oil palm plantation cover. The highest similarity index was obtained from young-aged oil palm (IS = 0.67) and the lowest commonality index was in old-aged oil palm (IS = 0.50). On the other hand, the old-aged oil palm has the highest value of mammal diversity and the lowest loss value, while the young-aged oil palm has the lowest mammal diversity value. Overall, land cover changes to oil palm plantations have a positive impact due to the addition of two species of mammals and the value of species diversity did not change significantly.