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Title:	Factors affecting human-elephant conflict in Jeli, Kelantan
Authors:	Ahmad Zafir Abdul Wahab (P57875)
Supervisor:	Saiful Arif Abdullah, Assoc. Prof. Dr.
Keywords:	Elephants -- Malaysia Elephants -- Conservation -- Malaysia Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia -- Dissertations Dissertations, Academic -- Malaysia
Issue Date:	17-May-2018
Description:	In Peninsular Malaysia, elephants cause among the highest wildlife conflict with human. Human-elephant conflict (HEC) occurs when elephants intrude into human use areas and cause damage to crops, property, creating unsafe situations to humans, as well as causing human mortality. This study was conducted to analyze factors that affect HEC incidents and how it is related to elephant behaviour. Using Jeli district in the Kelantan as a case study, analysis of the MODIS land cover images of Jeli for year 2000 and 2010 showed that the land cover changes in the district were significant (x2= 0.001, df= 6, p< 0.01). Most HEC incidents (61.38%) were recorded in areas where land cover changes have taken place. The land cover changes in Jeli have a weak but significant correlation with HEC incidents (r= 0.208, df= 168, p< 0.01). It was found that HEC still persists even with the vast availability of elephant habitat. Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis using Maximum Entropy model (MaxEnt) produced a prediction model (AUC score= 0.846) which shows that „land use‟ had the biggest influence to the location of HEC incidents (40.41%) compared with other factors which include distance to villages, human areas, forest and to rivers. GIS analysis shows that most of the HEC incidents were reported in „rubber‟ followed by „other agriculture‟. However, upon comparison with random expected points, positive preference was only shown for „other agriculture‟ and „shrub‟. Statistical analysis showed that fruiting season has a strong and significant correlation with HEC incidents (r=0.777, df= 11, p<0.005). Even though no significant correlation exists between the rain distribution and HEC incidents, a distinct pattern was observed between the two subjects; portraying that more HEC incidents happened after the relatively drier years/months. The relationship between HEC incidents and selective logging was not significant with a moderate correlation (r= 0.585, df= 10, p= 0.059). To understand elephant behaviour and ecology, a female elephant was collared and monitored from 24th May 2012 to 23rd May 2013 using satellite telemetry, which resulted in a home range of 336.07 km² (MCP) and 206.54 km² (Fixed Kernel 95%). The elephant showed a positive preference for logged forest compared to the unlogged and denoting higher preference for older logged forest than recently logged forest. Elevation and slope also had a significant effect on the elephant‟s habitat use. During the study, the elephant and her herd were not involved in HEC. Active logging activities within the elephant home range also did not seem to affect her movements. To identify potential HEC risk areas, the Potential HEC Area Index was developed. This index was based on the combination of spatial parameters related to HEC including distance from elephant habitat, elevation, slope, land use type and the logging history of the surrounding forest. Using ArcMap, this index was translated into a map to predict HEC risk areas in Jeli. Most of the areas in Jeli falls under the „No risk‟ (36.04%) and „Low risk‟ (41.55%), followed by „Medium risk‟ (17.30%) and „High risk‟ (5.11%). This study concludes that habitat loss is not the only factor that causes HEC incidents as there are many inter-related factors including habitat size, land use types, weather pattern, fruiting seasons and elephant behaviour that affect HEC incidents. Only after understanding the relationship among all the factors, better management and mitigation steps could be carried out. The most important action now is how the forest as well as human activities along the forest fringes are being managed so that HEC could be mitigated. However, the real challenge lies with implementing these findings and recommendations on the ground.,“Certification of Master's/Doctoral Thesis” is not available,Ph.D.
Pages:	181
Call Number:	QL737.P98A363 2018 tesis
Publisher:	UKM, Bangi
Appears in Collections:	Institute for Environment and Development / Institut Alam Sekitar dan Pembangunan (LESTARI)

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