Hunting of wild animals by Saubeba Community in Manokwari, West Papua, Indonesia

Abstract. Sawaki S, Taran D, Taran F, Bomoi R, Rumateray M. 2022. Hunting of wild animals by Saubeba Community in Manokwari, West Papua, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 23: 2411-2416. Hunting is a way to harvest wild animals from nature and it is still a common practice by local communities in Papua, Indonesia. This study aims to investigate traditional ecological knowledge of hunting wild animals by Saubeba community in Manokwari, West Papua, Indonesia. The data was collected through open interviews to 32 respondents determined using the snowball sampling technique. The result showed that hunting is performed in a group of 4-8 members when the dark moon happens. A group of hunters consists of adult men and teenage boys aged above 15 years old. They hunt 3-4 times per month with a duration of 2-3 days in the forest. Modern hunting is carried out using weapons, while traditional hunting is performed with the help of dogs, used arrows, spears and snares. Women are not allowed to hunt and they are prohibited to touch all hunting equipment and the catches. Among the wild animals hunted, nine out of sixteen species are categorized as protected animals and some of them have high conservation concerns in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List and Convention on International Trades on Endangered Species (CITES) list. No conservation efforts are planned and applied by the hunters and the community. However, there is a shift in the diet, in which eleven respondents stop hunting and start to raise livestock for consumption purposes. This suggests that assistance in livestock rearing programs by government is required to reduce the hunting pressure on the remaining wild animals.