By Gliselle Marin | Development Manager
Since November, the Ya’axche Human/Jaguar Conflict officer and team have been focusing on gathering important data on the wildlife that surrounds our demonstration “jaguar-friendly” farms. Through your kind donations, and the assistance of the Disney Foundation, we have been able to deploy camera trap; and, we have spent the past two months visiting farms to collect photos from each of those traps. Through this collection of data, the Ya’axche team has noted a desire from farmers to receive training on how to process that camera trapping data. This would allow farmers to contribute to data analysis of farm biodiversity data. With this in mind, the human/jaguar conflict team has begun plans for upcoming activities to expand the program. The near future includes a meeting with cattle farmers from demonstration farms to maintain their commitment to continue biodiversity monitoring through camera trapping on their farms. Their commitment will allow for them to receive training on data retrieval and processing.
In other positive news, there has not been any report of jaguar attacks on any of the demonstration “jaguar friendly” farms since November. This is can be partly attributed to the success of the mitigation strategies suggested through our human/jaguar conflict program. Jaguar sightings have been more numerous around the communities in the Maya Golden Landscape (MGL). Video evidence has been shared on social media from witnesses to a jaguar swimming in the Independence lagoon in southern Belize. On January 15, 2019, Ya’axche’s very own Community Outreach and Livelihood Liason Officer, Julio Chub, spotted two young jaguars along the highway near Medina Bank, and managed to capture a photo of one of them. This gives us hope that jaguar populations remain stable in the MGL, which we hope to confirm through analysis of biodiversity monitoring grids like the camera traps integrated on our demonstration farms.
The success of the current demonstration plots serve as a framework for the expansion of the human/jaguar program and provide valuable evidence of successful mitigation techniques. These are highly valuable in agricultural farms of the MGL where conflicts with wildlife are still occuring. Just last month, Ya’axche received a report from one of the “jaguar friendly” farmers, that a neighbouring farm was attacked by a wildcat. Ya’axche later learned that the farmer took retaliation into his own hands and a puma, suspected to be responsible for the attacks, was shot as a result. These events are an example of what Ya’axche hopes to prevent by equipping farms with effective mitigation strategies. The continued support of our donors will allow us to continue the expansion of the program and promote coexistence with wildlife within the Maya Golden Landscape. Ya’axche thanks the donors who allow us to continue our ongoing outreach and technical assistance to rural farmers. Your contribution allows wildlife to thrive safely in their natural home ranges to support a healthy ecosystem for residents of southern Belize. Please continue to support the ongoing human/jaguar conflict mitigation program, and spread the word to friends and colleagues as there is lots more to be done. Check out our other GlobalGiving campaigns to see where your donations can contribute to other areas of conservation like our Bioblitz campaign. https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/help-children-of-toledo-belize-attend-bioblitz/
By Gliselle Marin | Development Manager
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
