Building Coexistence on Shared Ground: People, Livestock, and Jaguars
Juan Reppucci
This project’s overall vision is that local wildlife coexists harmoniously with local communities, and a shift in husbandry practices has reduced its environmental impact.
Jaguars are Critically Endangered in Argentina. The species distribution has reduced by more than 95%, compared with the most conservative historical data. This retraction has been caused in many cases by habitat loss and degradation, but in all cases direct retaliatory killing was a factor contributing to local extinction. Nowadays, human-jaguar conflict is by far the main threat to remaining populations, especially in northwest Argentinean Yungas Forest, and is likely preventing expansion to nearby highly suitable areas. The species has been retracting in the last century, while now the retraction has slowed and it is time to stop it and even reverse it.
The remaining jaguar populations lie in abrupt terrain, less susceptible to agricultural deforestation and giving us the opportunity of preserve this populations by working with local communities to reduce conflict.
This project will use jaguars as a flagship species to protect the entire ecosystem, resulting in healthier local populations and the possibility of recolonization of adjacent suitable areas.
The specific objectives of this project are:
- Help local ranchers to improve husbandry practices not only to reduce conflict with jaguars but also improve production which lead to increased tolerance.
- Train local people to respond in cases of wildlife attacks on livestock, and general livestock health.
- Raise awareness in local communities, especially young people.