Assessing the potential for avifauna recovery in degraded forests in Indonesia

作者：Marthy William^*; Clough Yann; Tscharntke Teja

来源：Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 2017, 65: 35-48.

• deforestation
• distance sampling
• forest restoration
• avian diversity
• logging

Continuing disappearance and degradation of primary tropical rainforests in Indonesia, and the ongoing conversion of degraded forest to monoculture plantations, threaten many bird species with local extinction. Yet, information on bird populations from the Sundaic region, which covers western Indonesia, is generally lacking, limiting our understanding of species responses to disturbance, extinction risks, and potential ways to counteract local species extinction processes. On the Indonesian island of Sumatra, bird density information is only known from two studies ( on four hornbill species and one pheasant species). Here, we compare bird densities between less degraded and highly degraded forests within the Harapan Rainforest Ecosystem Restoration Concession in Sumatra. From a total of 148 bird species recorded, densities were calculated for 47 species with the highest encounter rate, 33 of which were recorded in forests of both disturbance levels, allowing comparisons to be made. We found five species with higher densities in the highly degraded forest and seven species with higher densities in the less degraded forest. While our species-specific results were generally consistent with previous biological insights, there were exceptions, such as a species previously considered to be sensitive to habitat degradation, the sooty-capped babbler Malacopteron affine, being more abundant in the highly degraded forest. Our study revealed that despite its condition, degraded forest retains much value for Sumatran lowland forest birds, providing a compelling argument for securing its important conservation status under improved management, rather than assigning it for clearance as typically happens.

• 出版日期2017