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The Amer­i­cas’ largest wild cat, the elu­sive and iconic jaguar, received a his­toric seal of pro­tec­tion yes­ter­day with the offi­cial recog­ni­tion of Costa Rica’s Jaguar Cor­ri­dor and the estab­lish­ment of the country’s first offi­cial jaguar con­ser­va­tion strategy.

MOU with Pan­thera Estab­lishes Nation’s First Offi­cial Jaguar Con­ser­va­tion Framework

On July 5^th, Costa Rica’s Min­is­ter of Envi­ron­ment, Energy and Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions (MINAET), Dr. René Cas­tro, presided over the sign­ing of a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MOU) between Dr. Alan Rabi­nowitz, CEO of Pan­thera, the world’s lead­ing wild cat con­ser­va­tion orga­ni­za­tion, and MINAET, in San José. Through this agree­ment, which will be later rat­i­fied and imple­mented by Costa Rica’s Con­ser­va­tion Areas National Sys­tem (SINAC), both groups com­mit to car­ry­ing out rig­or­ous sci­en­tific and con­ser­va­tion ini­tia­tives that will help in secur­ing pro­tected wild lands link­ing jaguar pop­u­la­tions in Costa Rica and beyond, as well as ensure that the devel­op­ment of land around these pro­tected areas is done in a way to ben­e­fit both wildlife and local communities.

Dr. René Cas­tro added, “Each time that we con­nect wild areas, we con­serve our bio­di­ver­sity and ben­e­fit flag­ship species like the jaguar.”

Crowned by Nicaragua and bor­dered by Panama to the south, Costa Rica serves as a crit­i­cal link in the global Jaguar Cor­ri­dor, which aims to con­nect and pro­tect jaguar pop­u­la­tions rang­ing from Mex­ico to Argentina to ensure the species’ genetic diver­sity and survival.

Oper­at­ing under the umbrella of the Min­istry of Envi­ron­ment, Energy and Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions (MINAET), SINAC over­sees the man­age­ment of Costa Rica’s wildlife, forestry and water and national parks sys­tem, includ­ing over 160 pro­tected areas. Since 2008, Panthera’s jaguar sci­en­tists have worked in part­ner­ship with SINAC and local part­ners to research the sta­tus of jaguar pop­u­la­tions inside the country’s pro­tected areas, assess threats fac­ing jaguars and other wildlife, includ­ing land devel­op­ments such as roads and reser­voirs, imple­ment community-​based envi­ron­men­tal edu­ca­tion projects and train ranch­ers in human-​jaguar con­flict mit­i­ga­tion tech­niques that allow for local com­mu­ni­ties to coex­ist with jaguars.

Panthera’s MesoAmer­ica and Costa Rica Jaguar Coor­di­na­tor, Roberto Salom-​Pérez, explained, “Panthera’s efforts are a win­ning con­ser­va­tion strat­egy not only for jaguars, but also for the thou­sands of other ani­mal and plant species with which they share their homes, includ­ing cougars, ocelots and other wild cats. Shar­ing data gath­ered through these projects with SINAC, land devel­op­ment com­pa­nies, farm­ers and local stake­hold­ers, Panthera’s Costa Rica team is iden­ti­fy­ing, cre­at­ing and pro­tect­ing the most viable land, or bio­log­i­cal cor­ri­dors, that con­nect jaguar pop­u­la­tions. This is a proud moment for Costa Rica and shows how com­mit­ted the coun­try is to con­serv­ing the jaguar.”

Today, Costa Rica serves as one of 18 Latin Amer­i­can coun­tries that is home to the jaguar, and one of 13 coun­tries in which Pan­thera is con­duct­ing jaguar con­ser­va­tion ini­tia­tives. High­lighted by the United Nations Devel­op­ment Pro­gramme in 2011 for its adher­ence to strong envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­ity poli­cies and prac­tices, SINAC is dis­tin­guished as one of the best in the region, with more than 25% of the country’s land clas­si­fied and man­aged as part of the MINAET’s National Bio­log­i­cal Cor­ri­dor Pro­gram (NBCP).

The above news item is reprinted from mate­ri­als avail­able at Pan­thera. Orig­i­nal text may be edited for con­tent and length.

(Source: Pan­thera Press Release, 06.07.2012)