The diversity and function of useful plant species for Bali Aga Community in Bukit Kangin Forest, Tenganan Pegringsingan Village, Karangasem Regency, Bali

Abstract

One of the villages in Bali that is still running its daily life traditionally is Tenganan Pegringsingan village. This village is located in Manggis District, Karangasem Regency, Bali Province. This village is a Bali Age village (original Balinese village). This village has three hills, namely Kangin Hill, Kauh Hill, and Kaja Hill. The condition of the forest is very sustainable, because it is managed traditionally. There are various plant species in it, some are used traditionally and there are some plant species that have not been used traditionally. In the meantime, there has been no research that has recorded the plant species in the forest, both those that can be used by the local community and those that have not been utilized. This study were to determine the composition of useful plant species in the forest of Tenganan Pegringsingan village, Bali. and to determine the diversity index of useful plant species in the forest of Tenganan Pegringsingan village. This study was an explorative study. The population of this study was the entire useful plant species in the area of Bukit Kangin forest. The sample of this study was the entire useful plant species covered by the squares sized of 20x20m (for data collection of mature habitus species), 10x10m (for sapling), and 1x1m (for seedling), 65 squares for each data collection. The plant species composition analyzed descriptively and diversity index refers to Shannon-Wiener. Then, it followed by the analysis of equity (E) and species richness (R). The results of the study showed that (1) there were 77 plant species in Bukit Kangin forest. Based on the Tenganan Pegringsingan Bali Aga social culture, 46 of them (60%) were useful plant species for the local people, whereas the remaining 31 plant species (40%) were the unutilized plant species, (2) There were 31 plant families which consisted of 46 useful plant species with as many as 2,249 total species individual. The conclusion of this research is the majority (60%) of these plants is used by the local community and 40% are not traditionally used by the local community. Useful plants traditionally utilized by local communities are for the purposes of religious ceremonial material (Hindu) as many as 29 plant species (35.80%), for medicinal purposes as many as 18 plant species (27.70%), as many as 17 plant species food ( 20.99%), the need for board materials is 13 plant species (16.05%), the need for clothing and industrial materials is 2 plant species (2.47%).