The impact of oil palm plantation on the diversity of herpetofauna in PT BLP, Central Kalimantan Province

Abstract

The demand for palm oil products both domestically and abroad is increasing and causing oil palm plantation areas to continue to expand. Land used for oil palm plantations comes from a variety of land covers that have different impacts. One of the impacts is the change in ecosystems that are feared could reduce biodiversity, including that of herpetofauna; therefore, this study was conducted. The objectives of this study were identifying the impact of oil palm plantations on diversity of herpetofauna and species composition of herpetofauna. The herpetofauna species were observed using visual encounter survey modified with a line transect (1 km) method over various types of land cover: youngest, middle and oldest oil palm plantations, high conservation value forest and secondary forest. The diversity was then analyzed using evenness index (E), richness index (Dmg) and community similarity index (IS). The number of herpetofauna species in the secondary forest was higher than the oil palm plantation areas (15 species vs. 12 species). The evenness and richness values in oil palm plantations were higher compared to secondary forest (E = 0.93 vs 0.87; Dmg = 3.61 vs 2.94). There were two species lost and five species gained, which was caused by area conversion from secondary forest to oil palm plantation. The similarity index between secondary forest and oil palm plantation areas was 74%. Hence, this study shows that oil palm plantation areas change the composition of herpetofauna.