Common Ground: Solutions for reducing the human, economic and conservation costs of human wildlife conflict Page: 54
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The villages in which the current study has been conducted have on average a population of
2042 individuals, comprising 492.6 households, and a density of 28.4 individuals/km2.
More than 80% of the 447 households surveyed generated their main source of income from
agriculture, and for 69% of all households, this includes oil palm. Nowadays, 'agriculture' in
these villages is almost synonymous with farming of oil palms, as almost all farmers are using
their land for this crop. The mean size of a household's oil palm plot was 1.7 ha. There were
a number of individuals in the study area who own up to100 ha of oil palm, but they were not
available to be interviewed for this study.
In five of the villages (Lubuk Batu Tinggal, Sei Beras-Beras, Pontian Mekar, Pasir Putih, Air
Hitam, and Langkan) oil palm stands owned by farmers in are in productive ages (6 - 9 years
old) and their fresh fruit branch (FFB) production varies between 7 and 9 ton/ha/yr. If the price
of lkg FFB is 1,200 Indonesian Rupiahs (US$ 0.13 at US$1= 9,100 Rupiahs), a 2 hectare
of oil palm stand at this age can generate an annual income of 16,800,000 - 21,600,000
Rupiahs (US$ 1,846 - 2,374), or a monthly income of 1,400,000 - 1,800,000 Rupiahs (US$
154 - 198). This is gross monthly income, not taking into account production and other costs.
Plantations in three other villages (Segati, Penarikan and Pangkalan Gondai) are mostly below
3 years of age so are not yet producing. It is important to note here that smallholder's farms
actually vary greatly in the treatment quality and thus in the productivity of their plantations.
As such the above figures (and those provided below for rubber) indicate more or less the
average productivity values based on respondents' feedback in interviews.
Slightly more than 15% of respondents owned rubber plantations. Rubber has been an
integral part of the trans-settlement process as families which were brought from Java and
resettled here were each granted 2 ha of rubber plot as the basis of their livelihood. Today
the mean size of rubber plantations was 1-2 ha. Possession of 2ha rubber stands potentially
brings Rupiahs 1,850,000 /month (US$ 203), which is comparable to that generated by 2
ha of 9 year-old oil palm stand. However owners of old rubber stands seem to be more
interested in converting their rubber gardens into oil palm farms. At Pangkalan Gondai, for
example, respondents indicated that the number of households planting oil palms on land
formerly maintained as rubber gardens is increasing.
There is a wide gap in land and income distribution, with the incomes of some people up to
25 times higher than those of others. The local minimum wage in Riau (the minimum amount
of wage/pay in the province, as determined by the government) has changed from around
600,000 to around 800,000 Rupiahs per month from 2000 to 2007 (US$66 - 88). Using these
standards as a benchmark, about 10% of the study group was poor or very poor. Using
the World Bank's definition of poverty being an income less than one US dollar per day per
person, about 30% would be defined as poor.
Levels of HWC vary greatly between what is remembered by villagers, news archives, and
what is recorded in official statistics. There are also large differences between years and
between households. Just 89 households (19.9%) out of 447 households interviewed claimed
to have been victims of HEC in the study area within the period of 2000 - 2007. Not all claims
concerned damage to palm oil farms, but all referred to property damage or losses.
Of those 89 households that experienced HEC events, on average 70.8% of respondents
had only experienced it once, and just 4.5% had experienced it more than twice during the
2000 - 2007 period. On average, each respondent experienced HEC 1.3 times during this
period (see Table 3).54
Sral farmers
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World Wildlife Fund. Common Ground: Solutions for reducing the human, economic and conservation costs of human wildlife conflict, book, May 2008; Gland, Switzerland. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc32900/m1/54/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .