“I will build a great wall—and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me—and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.” — Donald Trump
Mexico launched a conservation program back in 2005, that is overseen by the National Park System of Mexico. That program has been wildly successful for increasing the population of Mexico’s jaguar, which is considered a “near threatened species”. The range of the jaguar includes most of the America’s, where there has even been a spotting of large male cat in Arizona.
Jaguar’s are endangered by habitat loss and fragmentation, trophy killings, a burgeoning illegal trade in body parts (particularly their teeth that are in high demand in China), revenge killings associated with livestock loss and killings due to human fear.
Mexico's population of wild jaguars has grown 20 percent in the past eight years, according to a study released Thursday, a bit of good news for an iconic species whose numbers have been declining.
There are an estimated 4,800 jaguars in Mexico, found the study, carried out by a consortium of institutions and academics with remotely activated cameras triggered by sensors.
That was a 20-percent increase from the first edition of the study, carried out in 2010.
"The presence of jaguars ensures that these ecosystems function, by controlling the population of herbivores, and is also an indicator of the ecosystems' good health," said Heliot Zarza, vice president of the National Jaguar Conservation Alliance, in a statement released by the World Wildlife Fund.
The jaguar, the largest feline in the Americas, can weigh up to 100 kilos (220 pounds), though the ones found in Mexico rarely weigh more than 60 kilos.
The United Nations Development Programme announced in March that 14 jaguar range countries signed an agreement implementing a regional conservation program for the jaguar and it’s habitat.
Coinciding with this year’s World Wildlife Day celebration on the theme of Big Cat Conservation, the high-level Forum was organized with the objective of championing jaguar conservation and its role in promoting ecosystem resilience, local development, and climate mitigation, and advancing the 2030 Agenda. The Forum was co-hosted by the Permanent Missions of Mexico and Colombia to the United Nations, and co-organized by CI, Panthera, UNDP, WCS and WWF.
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Recent progress on jaguar conservation solutions have demonstrated that this loss can be prevented and, in some cases, reversed as populations recover, with a set of proven conservation actions that protect this culturally and ecologically important species, while also addressing community and national development needs. Maintaining and accelerating this initial success will require a comprehensive regional approach by all partners.