BIODIVERSITAS ISSN: 1412-033X Volume 17, Number 2, October 2016 E-ISSN: 2085-4722 Pages: 783-790 DOI: 10.13057/biodiv/d170255 Human-Leopard Conflict in Girimukti Village, Sukabumi, Indonesia RUHYAT PARTASASMITA 1♥ , SYA SYA SHANIDA 1 , JOHAN ISKANDAR 1,2 , ERRI NOVIAR MEGANTARA 1,2 , TEGUH HUSODO 1,2 , PARIKESIT 1,2 , NICHOLAS MALONE 3 , 1 Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran. Jl. Raya Bandung-Sumedang Km 21, Jatinangor, Sumedang 45363, West Java, Indonesia. Tel. +62-22-7796412 ext. 104, Fax. +62-22-7794545, ♥ email: ruhyat.partasasmita@unpad.ac.id 2 Programe of Environmental Science, School of Graduates, Universitas Padjadjaran. Jl. Sekeloa, Coblong, Bandung 40134, West Java, Indonesia. 3 Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland, Levels 7 and 8, Human Sciences Building, 10 Symonds Street, Central Business District, Auckland 1010, New Zealand Manuscript received: 20 April May 2016. Revision accepted: 3 October 2016 Abstract. Partasasmita R, Shanida SS, Iskandar J, Megantara EN, Husodo T, Malone N. 2016. Human-Leopard Conflict in Girimukti Village, Sukabumi, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 17: 783-790. Populations of leopards continue to decrease over time. This decline is caused by many factors, such as decreasing animal prey and habitat loss. Due to a lack of animal prey, leopards frequently enter villages to find food, including livestock. Therefore, some conflicts between human-leopard have frequently occurred, and in many cases the leopard has been hunted by the villager. Consequently, the abundance of leopard in some areas of West Java have decreased. The aim of this research is to investigate: (i) local knowledge of the Girimukti Village on morphological variation of leopard; (ii) conflict between leopard and the people of Girimukti Village based on local knowledge; (iii) local knowledge on the hunting of leopard; and (iv) utilization of leopard resulting from human-leopard conflict in Girimukti Village, Sukabumi, West Java, Indonesia. Mixed methods and field observation were applied in this study. The result of this study shows that the village people of Girimukti recognize variations of leopard and their behavior; conflict between humans and leopard has increased; hunting leopard is been undertaken by both traps and shotgun; and leopard are used for various purposes, such as trading skin and other body parts, food, traditional medicines, and as amulets. Based on this study, it can be inferred that many drivers of environmental changes that impact faunal and floral communities are social in origin and strongly related with peoples’ activities. As a result, in addition to biological properties , the social, economic and political systems must be considered and integrated into the conservation program of Javan leopards. Keywords: Girimukti Village, human-leopard conflict, leopard INTRODUCTION Human social systems, which consist of populations, technologies, social structure, knowledge, value and economic factors are closely interrelated with ecosystem components such as soil, water, climate, flora and fauna (Iskandar 2014). The ecosystem provides services by mobilizing materials, energy and information for the social system to meet various needs of people. Information, in this case, refers to any signs or indicators about the past, present or future state of individual components of an ecosystem, or to the system as a whole. Various information is received, processed, analyzed, and selected to shape appropriate responses to the environmental information that continually flows into the organism’s receptors (Rambo 1984; Marten 2001). With regard to human ecology, local people’s environmental information is culturally transmitted from the older to the younger generations as local knowledge or indigenous knowledge. Unlike Western scientific knowledge, local knowledge is predominantly communicated by oral transmission using the local or mother language and teaching through holistic, subjective, and experiential practices (Warren et al. 1995; Sillitoe 2002). On the basis the local knowledge, the villagers of West Java recognize three races of big cats, namely macan loreng, macan tutul, and macan kumbang. However, based on the biological taxonomy, the diversity of big cats is categorized as two species - tigers (Panthera tigris) and leopard (Panthera pardus) (Iskandar 2014). Historically, tigers (macam loreng) in Java and Bali had two sub- species: Panthera tigris sondaica in Java and Panthera tigris balica in Bali. However, the Bali tiger was recorded as extinct before the middle of the twentieth century, and the Javan tiger is also determined to be extinct since the 1980s (Whitten et al. 1999). Leopards (Panthera pardus) are widely recognized by the local people as comprising two varieties based on dominant coloration with spotted variety being referred to as macan tutul and the black morph referred to as macan kumbang. Javan leopards are identified as an identity species of West Java based on decree of the governor of West Java No.27 year 2005, as a form of conservation for this animal. The current population of Javan leopard has been estimated at 700 individuals within the conservation areas in Java (Santiapillai and Ramono 1992). The Javan leopard relative density value based a previous survey conducted at Bodogol, Gunung Gede-Pangrango National Park is one individual per 6 km 2 (Ario 2006), and at Mount Salak is one individual per 6.5 km 2 (Ario 2007). The density value at Gunung Halimun National Park is approximately one individual per 6.67 km 2 , based on the primary and secondary forest categorization (Syahrial dan Sakaguchi, 2003). However, Javan leopard populations have recently