TITLE:
Degradation of Primate Habitat at Tesso Nilo Forest with Special Emphasis on Riau Pale-Thighed Surili (Presbytis siamensis cana)
AUTHORS:
Jatna Supriatna, Sri Mariati
KEYWORDS:
Deforestation, Primate Habitat, Tesso Nilo Forest, Presbytis siamensis cana, Sumatra, Indonesia
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.5 No.12,
September
24,
2014
ABSTRACT: The
habitat of Riau pale-thighed surili (Presbytis
siamensis cana) located in Riau province of Sumatra island between Siak in
the north and Indragiri rivers in the south, has been seriously degraded in the
last a few decades. This swampy peat land forest has been degraded by frequent
burning during the dry season. These problems originated because of poor
governance on the forest management, and the construction of two access roads
by the owners of logging concessions and wood pulp plantations. This forest
block consists of Tesso Nilo National Park, Kerumutan protected area,
Production Forest areas belong to two companies, and a small recreation Park.
It also contains one of the most important mixed peat swamp forests. Here, we
tracked changes in forest cover before and after road construction using GIS
and remote sensing imagery. Deforestation rates have increased from 1.5% per
year before road construction to 9.28% per year after road construction, which
means that the area of forest has decreased by an annual average of 8156 ha in
Tesso Nillo alone. The habitat of Riau pale-thighed surili decreased almost up
to 60% in the last decade after companies started their converting forest for
oil palm and acacia and roads were built crisscrossed. If the trend of
deforestation continues, further decline of population of habitat of this
species is unavoided. Researches should be carried out in more details to
understand the status of population of this subspecies before this subspecies
disappears in the wild.