By Lucas Guaraldo*
Protected areas in the international Amazon concentrate jaguar populations and act as a shield for the species in the Arc of Deforestation. In a new article, published in the March issue of the scientific journal Biological Conservation, researchers warn of the need to conserve the forest, especially in the most threatened regions, in order to protect the species.
The study mapped jaguar populations in 22 protected areas in the Amazon using 40 cameras installed in national parks, extractive reserves and indigenous lands in Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia. The areas monitored were chosen to ensure that they represented all types of Amazonian ecosystems, such as dryland forests, igapós and floodplains at different altitudes, average temperatures and levels of human pressure.
According to the article, the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, in Amazonas, recorded a concentration of almost 10 jaguars per 100 km2, totaling 1,180 photographed, the highest concentration of specimens found in the study area, with a rate comparable to those recorded in the Pantanal, which concentrates an average of 12 jaguars per 100km2. In Rondônia, in the Jamari National Forest, only two jaguars were recorded.
“Habitat destruction and hunting have led to the significant reduction and even disappearance of jaguar populations in various regions of the Americas. So knowing and identifying areas where there is still an abundance of individuals can be of great help in designing more efficient conservation strategies and actions for the species. This was a collective effort to better understand the distribution of the jaguar throughout the biome, which is currently where the largest population of the species is concentrated throughout its range,” says Carlos Durigan, a researcher at IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute) and one of the authors of the study.
Where jaguars live
As rivers create diverse ecosystems within the Amazon biome itself, the study also sought to understand the relationship between forest types and the jaguar population. According to the images captured, the species most frequently inhabits floodplain areas, which concentrate a greater quantity of food and facilitate locomotion. Scientists indicate that places with a large human presence force jaguars to cover larger areas in order to guarantee access to adequate quantities of food.
Since 1985, the Brazilian Amazon has lost 53 million hectares to deforestation, which has converted areas of native forest into pastures and crops. Deforestation has also contributed to the degradation of the biome, which now has between 19 million and 34 million hectares of native vegetation degraded by fire, edge effects, drought and illegal logging. With degradation, areas of the forest are still standing, but they perform fewer and fewer of their ecosystem services, such as water and carbon cycling, as well as being more susceptible to fires and droughts, damaging the fauna and flora of these areas.
How the research was carried out
To identify the different jaguars photographed, researchers analyzed the unique patterns of spots and coats on each animal. In total, 389 jaguars were recorded between 2005 and 2020. In addition, the study highlights that most of the images were captured by cameras installed on dirt roads and trails in the middle of the closed forest, indicating that the species prefers these paths to move around easily.
The initiative involved researchers from IPAM; WWF; ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation); RedeFauna; IBAMA (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources); Inpa (National Institute for Amazonian Research); the University of Pará; the University of Roraima; Princeton University and the San Diego Zoo in the United States.
Recommendations for protecting the species
Based on the results collected, the group of researchers reaffirms the importance of creating new protection areas and increasing investments to ensure good management of existing lands. According to the researchers, areas such as the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, in Acre, the Terra do Meio Ecological Station, in Pará, and the Juruena National Park, in Mato Grosso, still concentrate large groups of jaguars, but are threatened by the advance of the Arc of Deforestation – the agricultural frontier that stretches from the east and south of Pará westwards through Mato Grosso, Rondônia and Acre.
“We emphasize the need for more conservation initiatives, especially in areas that are home to large jaguar populations and are under greater threat, such as the areas of the Arc of Deforestation. Alone, the 22 areas we analyzed concentrate an astonishing population, surpassing even estimates for entire countries highly relevant to jaguar conservation, such as Mexico,” highlights an excerpt from the article.
The study also highlights the destination of undesignated public forests as part of the protection of Amazonian jaguars. Today, these lands owned by the state or federal governments and awaiting definition of use total 56.6 million hectares, the same area as Spain, and have been increasingly affected by land grabbing. Research by IPAM reveals that between 2019 and 2021, more than half (51%) of deforestation will take place on public lands, with undesignated public forests being the hardest hit.