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UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Effects of El Niño and large-scale forest fires on the ecology and conservation of Malayan sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo Fredriksson, G.M. Publication date 2012 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Fredriksson, G. M. (2012). Effects of El Niño and large-scale forest fires on the ecology and conservation of Malayan sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). 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UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:04 Oct 2021 Effects of El Niño and forest fi res on the ecology and conservation of sun bears, Indonesian Borneo on the ecology and conservationres of sun bears, fi of El Niño and forest Effects Effects of El Niño and large-scale forest fi res on the ecology and conservation of Malayan sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo G. Fredriksson G. Gabriella Fredriksson Effects of El Niño and large-scale forest fires on the ecology and conservation of Malayan sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo Effects of El Niño and large-scale forest fires on the ecology and conservation of Malayan sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. D.C. van den Boom ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op donderdag 15 november 2012 om 12:00 uur door Gabriella Margit Fredriksson Geboren te Amsterdam, Nederland Promotiecommissie Promotor: Prof. Dr. S.B.J. Menken Co-Promotores: Dr. D.L. Garshelis Prof. Dr. J.E. Swenson Overige leden: Prof. Dr. P. van Tienderen Dr. H.D. Rijksen Prof. Dr. A.M. Cleef Prof. Dr. J.H.D. Wolf Prof. Dr. H. de Iongh Faculteit der Natuurwetenschappen, Wiskunde en Informatica © G.M. Fredriksson Illustrations cover and chapters: Timbul Cahyono Layout: Corien Smit Printing: Haveka BV Front cover illustration: In the foreground a sun bear is holding a wild durian fruit (Durio dulcis), which only fruits during the mast episodes. On the left is a strangling fig (Ficus spp.) a species that fruits at irregular inter- vals, one of the most important fruit species in the sun bear diet during the prolonged inter-mast period. To the right is a tree with clawmarks left behind after a bear climbed the tree. In the center a sun bear is feeding on a termite mound. Fires, set by humans, are looming in the background. Back cover illustration: On the right a sun bear is climbing a tree to investigate a stingless bee’s nest: only the characteristic nest entrance tube can be seen at the top of the tree. Small pitcher plants at the base of the tree hold rainwater, occasionally used by sun bears to quench their thirst. In the lower left corner a large reticulated python can be seen, one of the few natural predators of sun bears. Behind the snake, coconut trees planted near the forest edge by farmers have been covered with metal sheeting to protect them from sun bears climbing up and eating the growth shoot. In the back farmers have set fires to clear land. This publication (cover and interior) is printed on recycled paper, Revive®. With ink from renewable resources and alcohol free fountain solution. Recycled, EU Flower, FSC, ISO 14001. More info: http://www.haveka.nl/greening This thesis is dedicated to sun bears, in particular my bear friends Ganja, Ucil, Schizo and si Kecil may enough forest be conserved for this wonderful species to persist till eternity! And to Ingmar… may he become inspired to safe forests and wildlife in the future! Contents Chapter 1: General introduction 1 Chapter 2: Frugivory in sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) is linked to El Niño-related fluctuations in fruiting phenology, East Kalimantan, Indonesia 17 with S. A. Wich and Trisno Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (2006), 89(3): 489-508 Chapter 3: Movement and activity patterns of female sun bears in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo: implications for conservation 53 with D. L. Garshelis Chapter 4: Impacts of El Niño-related drought and forest fires on sun bear fruit resources in lowland dipterocarp forest of East Borneo 81 with L. S. Danielsen and J. Swenson Biodiversity and Conservation (2006), 15(4): 1271-1301 Chapter 5: Human-sun bear conflicts in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo 103 Ursus (2005), 16: 130-137 viii Contents Chapter 6: Predation on sun bears by reticulated python in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo 119 The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology (2005), 53(1): 165-168 Chapter 7: Exploring the use of sign surveys for monitoring relative abundance of sun bears: a case study in burned and unburned forests in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo 131 with D.L. Garshelis, W.J. Sastramidjaja, S.B.J. Menken Chapter 8: Synthesis and conclusions 163 Acknowledgements 179 Summary 185 Samenvatting 189 Ringkasan 195 Curriculum Vitae and List of Publications 201 Chapter 1 General introduction General introduction 3 General introduction Among the world’s tropical regions, Southeast Asia is of particular conservation con- cern because it has the highest rate of habitat loss (Sodhi et al. 2004, 2010, Miettinen et al. 2011). Most of Southeast Asia is considered a biodiversity hotspot because it is home to an exceptionally high number of endemic species that are threatened by the loss of >70% of original habitats (Myers et al. 2000). Southeast Asia is also highlighted as an area where past and present human-driven land-use changes are expected to cause extinctions across a wide range of taxa (Brook et al. 2003, Cardillo et al. 2006, Lee and Jetz 2008). Furthermore, environmental apathy, corruption, poor natural resource governance, poverty, and limited conservation fund- ing constitute difficult obstacles for conservationists in Southeast Asia (Sodhi et al. 2004, 2010, Sodhi and Brook 2006, Posa et al. 2008). Indonesia, the country with the largest expanse of remaining contiguous forest in Southeast Asia, has put its forests and wildlife under serious pressure in recent decades through a combination of unsustainable logging practices (Curran et al. 2004, Fuller et al. 2004, Meijaard et al. 2005), high rates of deforestation for plantation development (Hansen et al. 2009, Miettinen et al. 2011), and a succession of devastating forest fire events (Lennertz and Pfanzer 1984, Malingreau 1985, Siegert et al. 2001). Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo that covers 73% of the island, has experi- enced two extreme forest fire events in modern times, the first in 1982-83 and the second in 1997-98. Both these fire events coincided with severe and prolonged droughts associated with severe El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomena (Siegert et al. 2001). The fire event in 1982-83 affected an estimated 3.5 million ha (Mha) of forest in Kalimantan alone (Guhardja et al. 2000), whereas the disastrous fire event of 1997-98 affected circa 5 Mha of land in the prov- ince of East Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) alone, including 2.6 Mha of forest (Hoffmann et al. 1999, Siegert et al. 2001). Between 1997 and 2006, a total of 16.2 Mha of Borneo’s landmass1 (21% of total land surface area) have been affected by fires (Langner and Siegert 2009) (Fig. 1). These fires also entered several national parks and other protected areas (Curran et al. 2004, Langner and Siegert 2009), affecting their biodiversity value (Kinnaird and O’Brien 1998). At present the island is troubled by frequent smaller fire events, now occurring even during ‘normal’ dry seasons. This increased fire frequency is caused by a combination of droughts, for- est degradation leading to increased susceptibility to fires, and the growing use of fire as a cheap tool for land clearing by plantation companies and farmers (Hoffman et al. 1999).This increase 1 For size comparison, the total land surface area of the Netherlands is 3.35 Mha. 4 Chapter 1 of fires has primarily been connected with land speculation and development projects (Siegert et al. 2001, Page et al. 2002, Goldammer 2007). These recurring fire events are not only degrad- ing vast areas of rainforest, including their biodiversity, but are also causing massive carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming (Page et al. 2002, Achard et al. 2004). Figure 1: Map of Borneo depicting fire affected areas (1997-2006) adapted from Langner and Siegert (2009). Although forest fires have been recorded historically in western Indonesia (Goldam- mer and Seibert 1989), their incidence was rare, with intervals of hundreds to thousands of years (Cochrane et al. 1999). As a result, these tropical forests are maladapted to fire events (Slik et al. 2010), with fires having a devastating effect on tree survival (Leighton and Wirawan 1989, Woods 1989, Slik et al.