Chong Leong Puan

Effects of in situ habitat quality and landscape characteristics in the oil palm agricultural matrix on tropical understory birds, fruit bats and butterflies

Abstract The expansion of commercial oil palm crop has modified much of the natural landscape, subsequently leading to biodiversity loss in Southeast Asia. Aside from large-scale oil palm monoculture plantations, self-managed oil palm smallholdings are also becoming common in palm oil producing countries, but less is known about how management of the smallholdings affects faunal biodiversity. We argue that it is critically important to understand the role of habitat complexity at the local and landscape scales for maintaining faunal biodiversity in oil palm smallholdings. We used passive sampling methods to survey understory birds, fruit bats, and butterflies in oil palm smallholdings on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. We quantified the diversity in each taxon and measured in situ habitat quality and landscape metrics. We found that oil palm smallholdings located near rice fields supported fewer bird species. Proximity to roads can give rise to bird and fruit bat richness. Bird and fruit bat richness declined at sites with high crop density. Fruit bat richness declined, but butterfly richness increased, with the height of oil palm stands. Butterfly richness declined with distance from riparian habitats. Decreased coverage and height of ground vegetation also negatively affected butterfly species richness. We also found that the number of farm houses is positively related to bird, fruit bat, and butterfly species richness. Of the three taxa, only butterfly richness was positively influenced by crop diversity. We found that habitat complexity enables smallholdings to support a diverse community of birds and butterflies, but not fruit bats. These findings imply that oil palm smallholdings can be managed in a conservation agricultural matrix, as the smallholdings were able to maintain farmland biodiversity.

Effects of polyculture and monoculture farming in oil palm smallholdings on tropical fruit-feeding butterfly diversity

In many developing countries, commercial oil palm farming supports the livelihood of millions of small‐scale farmers in the rural areas. However, forest conversion into oil palm monocultures has a major impact on tropical biodiversity. In existing oil palm production landscapes, little is known about how different oil palm agricultural practices affect farmland biodiversity, particularly insect biota. We quantified fruit‐feeding butterfly species richness and community composition in oil palm areas subject to polyculture and monoculture farming in Peninsular Malaysia. Polyculture smallholdings were predicted to support greater butterfly diversity than monoculture smallholdings because of the greater structural complexity and floristic diversity associated with crop diversity in polyculture smallholdings. We also identified local‐scale habitat attributes important for maintaining fruit‐feeding butterfly species richness. We found no significant differences in butterfly species richness, abundance and the composition of butterfly assemblages between polyculture and monoculture smallholdings. Local‐scale habitat quality explained 32.1% of the variation in fruit‐feeding butterfly richness in oil palm smallholdings. We found that polyculture farming failed to increase fruit‐feeding butterfly diversity as a result of a limited number of crop species in oil palm smallholdings. To improve current agricultural practices and maintain high levels of butterfly diversity, commercial growers should increase the number of crop species planted in oil palm smallholdings.

A multi-stakeholder strategy to identify conservation priorities in Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract Malaysia, with its rapidly growing economy, exemplifies the tensions between conservation and development faced by many tropical nations. Here we present the results of a multi-stakeholder engagement exercise conducted to (1) define conservation priorities in Peninsular Malaysia and (2) explore differences in perceptions among and within stakeholder groups (i.e. government, academia, NGOs and the private sector). Our data collection involved two workshops and two online surveys where participants identified seven general conservation themes and ranked the top five priority issues within each theme. The themes were: (1) policy and management, (2) legislation and enforcement, (3) finance and resource allocation, (4) knowledge, research and development, (5) socio-economic issues, (6) public awareness and participation and (7) rights of nature. In spite of their very different backgrounds and agendas, the four stakeholder groups showed general agreement in their priority preferences except for two issues. Respondents from government and private sector differed the most from each other in their priority choices while academia and NGO showed the highest degree of similarity. This ranked list of 35 conservation priorities is expected to influence the work of policy-makers and others in Peninsular Malaysia and can be used as a model to identify conservation priorities elsewhere.

Vocal individuality of large-tailed nightjar (Caprimulgus macrurus) in Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract All four nightjar species resident in Peninsular Malaysia are vocally distinct, yet they remain little studied. Conventional field methods based on visual cues to study diurnal species may be impractical for nightjars. Alternatively, aural survey can potentially be applied on nightjars provided that individuality in their vocalisations can be proven. Our study aimed to determine the vocal individuality of the common, large-tailed nightjar (Caprimulgus macrurus) in oil palm smallholdings and an isolated forest patch located in Selangor, Peninsular Malaysia. From the call recordings obtained from 22 individuals, results of the Kruskal-Wallis analysis revealed significant differences in all the nine vocal parameters (call length, interquartile range bandwidth, low, high, average, centre and peak frequencies as well as first and third quartile frequencies) measured among individual nightjars (p < 0.001) regardless of study sites. Discriminant Function Analysis showed that more than 94.5% of original grouped cases were correctly classified. This implied that the majority of vocalizations can be assigned to individual birds based on the parameters measured. This study demonstrated the occurrence of vocal individuality in the large-tailed nightjar and such a finding pertaining to distinct vocalisations at the individual level will compensate for the limited access to visual cues in field surveys, as with the case for all nocturnal birds.