Assessment and management options of human-tiger conflicts in Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia

This paper aimed to investigate human-tiger conflict during the year 2000-2004 and has reviewed a number of potential measures for resolving the conflicts as part of conserving the Sumatran tigers which can be applied in the study area. These include technical measures which deal mainly with the individual 'problem' animal that comes into conflict and human dimension measures which focus on raising human tolerance toward tigers and reducing the negative effects of co-existence between human and tigers. Some of the measures namely, disruptive stimuli modification, raising tolerance through education and cultural perspective approaches had been tried for a short period. The success or otherwise of these measures in the field have also contributed to the conclusions drawn and the recommendations made as a result. The data are supplemented with more information, including the insight on the effect of conflicts between inhabitant and wildlife, the perspectives of villagers regarding human-tiger conflicts and the causal factors of individual conflict incidents. The reluctance of local community to report incidents prevents conservation agencies for delivering an immediate and effective response and it stimulates the killing of Sumatran tigers that benefits both hunters and livestock owners through the sale of tiger derivatives. This study also proposed a procedure for handling human-tiger conflict that hopefully may be tested in any other area.