Most found animals in the agroforestry of private forests in Ciamis and Tasikmalaya districts, West Java

Abstract

Diniyati D. 2015. Most found animals in the agroforestry of private forests in Ciamis and Tasikmalaya districts, West Java. Pros Sem Nas Masy Biodiv Indon 1: 642-646. The existence of private forests in a region provides the economical and ecological benefits such as jobs opportunities, generates micro climate, provide livestock feed and as wildlife habitat and others. Many types of trees species composing private forests generates an ideal habitat for certain wild animals. The purpose of the research was: (i) to find out the information about the most found animals by farmers in the private forests, ( ii) to find out the benefits and damage caused by animals as well as efforts to overcome. The research was conducted during May to August 2010 in Ciamis District and during March to July 2011 in Tasikmalaya District, West Java. The study was conducted by using ethnographic methods. The data were collected by interview to 120 forest farmers. The result showed that there were 18 animal species mostly found by farmers in the private forests. The most found animal in the northern region were birds, while in the southern and the central regions were squirrels. According to the farmers, there were eight animal species which disturb the vegetation of the forests. However, there were also some animals not categorized as disturbed animal such as birds. The farmers created two strategies to overcome the disturbed animals i.e. expelling the animals using traditionally noise sound, and killing the animals using the chemical substance. Unfortunately, the latter strategy has dangerous risks because it could potentially contaminate the environment and threaten the farmer’s safety. Therefore, the extensions about solving the animal problems in the private forests need to be conducted to introduce the way to handle the animal problems correctly and safely.