Thanks to WWF, 300 camera traps will be installed to monitor this species in the Conservation Corridor that links Peru, Ecuador and Colombia in the North Amazon region.

WWF Peru, Colombia and Ecuador have been working together to reinforce conservation efforts in the Napo-Putumayo corridor with the help of indigenous peoples, peasant communities, institutions and Protected Areas. As part of this joint strategy, WWF is preparing to take a big step forward in preserving the jaguar in the Amazon by introducing a regional monitoring system for the species in the trinational protected areas of Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve in Ecuador, La Paya National Park in Colombia, and Güeppi Zekime National Park in Peru.

This was established at the first jaguar monitoring workshop, which was held in Puerto Leguízamo, Colombia, in September 2017 with the aim of setting in motion a coordination process between the three countries in order to discover the true situation as far as jaguar conservation in the region is concerned. Participants at the gathering, which was organized by WWF, included representatives of the Peru, Ecuador and Colombia offices as well as of the La Paya National Park and Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve authorities and the Colombian Ministry of the Environment, plus indigenous biodiversity monitors who are working with WWF in the region. This initiative is the result of joint work between the North Amazon program (WWF Colombia and Ecuador) and WWF Peru, with support from WWF Germany.

It was agreed at the workshop that a polygon with an approximate area of 320 km2 should be established, in which it will be possible to install around 300 camera traps. According to WWF Peru Scientific Director José Luis Mena, who plays a fundamental role in the team in the region, double cameras will be installed in some cases, so as to “photograph both sides of the animal, which is key when it comes to identifying them. To this end, a polygon (study surface) will be established in each protected area, in line with the methodology followed in the last five years in WWF studies of endangered mammal populations in the Peruvian Amazon”.

As a result of these efforts by WWF, computerized information on a regional scale will be available for the first time about the jaguar population and its abundance, together with better indicators for preserving it. The process will also lead to new working agreements being made between local inhabitants and teams in the protected areas, with a view to reducing conflicts between them and jaguars.

WWF-Ecuador Forests and Water Coordinator Jorge Rivas maintains that the joint efforts between these three countries are a further example of the cooperative work that has been going on in this part of Putumayo for more than five years and illustrates the need for conservation work along our countries’ common borders, because species like the jaguar do not recognize political frontiers and these kinds of efforts are therefore necessary if they are to be preserved.