{"id":12015,"date":"2019-11-15T13:46:07","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T16:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amazoniasocioambiental.org\/radar\/ecuadors-vanishing-jaguars-the-big-cat-vital-to-rainforest-survival\/"},"modified":"2019-11-15T14:29:31","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T17:29:31","slug":"ecuadors-vanishing-jaguars-the-big-cat-vital-to-rainforest-survival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/en\/radar\/ecuadors-vanishing-jaguars-the-big-cat-vital-to-rainforest-survival\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecuador’s vanishing jaguars: the big cat vital to rainforest survival"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Jaguars<\/picture><\/div>
\u00a0<\/span>Jaguars are found across South America. This one was photographed deep inside the Nouragues Natural Reserve, in French Guiana. Photograph: Emmanuel Rondeau\/WWF France<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/header>\n
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The Guardian<\/strong>
\nEnvironment
\nKimberley Brown<\/strong>
\n11 de noviembre de 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

A<\/span><\/span>cross the American continent, from the north of Mexico to Argentina, the jaguar has long been revered for its strength and power. But in some parts of\u00a0Ecuador<\/a>, the largest cat in South America is increasingly at risk as roads, mining and agriculture take over the rainforests.<\/p>\n

The loss of habitat is the biggest threat to jaguars in Ecuador, particularly along the coast, where\u00a0more than\u00a0<\/a>70%<\/a>\u00a0of the original forest cover has been lost. The vast majority of this destruction has taken place over the last 50 years with the expansion of the logging and agriculture industries, including coffee, cacao, palm oil and bananas, one of the\u00a0country\u2019s largest agriculture exports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The coastal jaguar population has been declared\u00a0critically endangered<\/a>\u00a0by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Galo Zapata-R\u00edos, science director at the Wildlife Conservation Society Ecuador, says only a few remain in one small area on the coast, in the Cotacachi-Cayapas national park, in the northern province of Esmeraldas.<\/p>\n

\u201cJaguars historically were distributed along all the Ecuadorian coast, but now they\u2019re only in Esmeraldas,\u201d says Zapata-R\u00edos, who has been studying the big cat for 10 years. \u201cThat\u2019s the consequence of the advancement of human activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

As one of the largest predators in Latin America, the jaguar is essential to maintaining equilibrium in rainforest ecosystems. If it disappears, everything below it in the food chain is affected, with an overpopulation of rodents \u2013 the jaguar\u2019s prey \u2013 that would eat more bugs and seeds, and decrease the regeneration of trees and other plants in the forest, says Zapata-R\u00edos.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/picture><\/div>\n
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A jaguar in the Yasuni national park, Orellana, Ecuador. Photograph: Lucas Bustamante\/NPL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s so important \u2013 it\u2019s a species that allows you to conserve other species,\u201d says Jessica Pacheco, an endangered species expert with the World\u00a0Wildlife<\/a>\u00a0Fund Ecuador.<\/p>\n

Pacheco works predominantly with jaguar conservation initiatives in Ecuador\u2019s Amazon rainforest, where populations are not yet as decimated as on the coast.<\/p>\n

A recent study by the WWF estimates that\u00a02,000 jaguars<\/a>\u00a0live in the Amazon border region of Ecuador, Colombia and Peru, in what\u2019s known as the Napo-Putumayo corridor, including 21 identified in Ecuador\u2019s Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve.<\/p>\n

Butconservationists are concerned that the expansion of extraction activities in the Amazon will lead to further forest destruction with the creation of roads further into the rainforest, reducing the jaguar habitat and increasing its access to outsiders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment you open roads, you open a door to a market of wildlife,\u201dsays Pacheco.<\/p>\n

Over the past two years, the Ecuadorian president, Len\u00edn Moreno, has been actively seeking new oil investment, hoping to attract\u00a0$800m<\/a>\u00a0for four oil fields in the eastern Amazon rainforest. He also plans to\u00a0double the value<\/a>\u00a0of the country\u2019s mining industry by 2021, which includes developing open pit mining in the gold- and copper-rich southern Amazon.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/picture><\/div>\n
A Brazilian soldier swims in the Negro river holding Jiquitaia, a two-year-old jaguar that was adopted by the military command of the Amazon. Jiquitaia was rescued as a cub after hunters killed his mother. Photograph: None Mangueira\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The increase in Chinese investment in the Amazon also has conservationists concerned that this could lead to increased jaguar trafficking, as it opens up easier access to Asian markets. So far, two mines in the southern Amazon, the\u00a0Mirador<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0San Carlos Panantza<\/a>\u00a0copper mines, are Chinese-owned.<\/p>\n

Jaguar trafficking<\/a>\u00a0is on the rise across South America, in countries such as Suriname, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil, as its teeth, skin and bones are used in Chinese traditional medicines and exotic jewellery.<\/p>\n

While jaguar trafficking is not yet established in Ecuador, the illegal hunting of other bush meat, such as wild boar and watusa, a large rodent, is common. With the jaguar\u2019s natural prey diminishing, it is being forced to eat chickens and dogs from local communities, causing conflict and competition with humans over resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to transform conflict into coexistence,\u201d says Pacheco. She believes jaguar conservation can only be achieved by working with communities. \u201cIt\u2019s holistic work,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

Both Pacheco and Zapata-R\u00edos have developed conservation projects with local communities. These include creating programmes to educate local people about the importance of the jaguar and teaching them how to set up and run camera traps to monitor local populations, she says.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/picture><\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span>A jaguar wrestles with a caiman, in Pantanal Wetlands, Brazil. Photograph: Andrew Melhuish\/Barcroft Media<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Indigenous communities have historically had strong connections with jaguars and other felines, which were often seen as symbols of strength and divinity. Some of the earliest documented evidence of felines in Ecuador comes in the form of ancient relics and statues that date back\u00a03,000 years<\/a>, made by pre-Columbian era societies.<\/p>\n

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Gloria Ushigua, the indigenous S\u00e1para leader from Ecuador\u2019s Amazon rainforest, says the jaguar represents the wisdom of the mountains and protects the spirits, from which indigenous knowledge is derived.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re very important,\u201d says Ushigua. If the jaguar disappears, the S\u00e1para nation \u201cwould lose all of our knowledge \u2026 We would end horribly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservationists have not yet given up on the jaguar\u2019s future in Ecuador. Even on the coast, Zapata-R\u00edos says, \u201cThe work is a lot harder there, but I\u2019m optimistic that we can still maintain the small population.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tomado de: https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2019\/nov\/11\/ecuadors-vanishing-jaguars-the-big-cat-vital-to-rainforest-survival<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Jaguars are found across South America. This one was photographed deep inside the Nouragues Natural Reserve, in French Guiana. Photograph: Emmanuel Rondeau\/WWF France The Guardian Environment Kimberley Brown 11 de noviembre de 2019 Across the American continent, from the north of Mexico to Argentina, the jaguar has long been revered for its strength and power.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":327,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-radar","category-3","description-off"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12060,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12015\/revisions\/12060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisg.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}