Subsidient: Danielle Verheijen/Wageningen University
Subsidie: S153.62
The purpose of this research is to show which factors can be related to the conservation attitudes of local people in and around Batang Gadis National Park, Sumatra, towards wildlife in general and the Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi) in particular. Implicit attitudes, that have an unknown origin, and explicit attitudes, that judge a certain situation, are formed by different factors, such as fear, experiences, (lack of) knowledge and culture. An insight in implicit and explicit attitudes can influence management practices of natural areas, including national parks. Data was obtained through opportunistic sampling by structured interviews among 105 mostly low-educated respondents in seven villages North-Sumatra. Overall, respondents had a negative attitude towards clouded leopard and were proponents of killing clouded leopard. Most respondents were opponents of killing wildlife and even supported the protection of wildlife. Among the most significant results were fear, knowledge about rarity of clouded leopard and visibility of clouded leopard the prominent variables that could be related to explicit, but moreover implicit conservation attitudes. Understanding the attitudes and impacts of different stakeholder groups on carnivores might be a necessity for the implementation of conservation programmes tailored for specific areas and target species.
