Wildlife Conservation South Africa Project #17113

Big Cat Conservation: A Global Alliance

by Worldwide Indigenous Science Network

Project Report | Nov 7, 2017
Snow Leopards in the Caves of Southern France!

By beth duncan | Program Manager

Zhaparkul in front of the the snow leopard paintin

Snow Leopards in the Caves of Southern France!

Global Big Cat Alliance

Fall 2017 Report

"Science and Indigenous knowledge must work together. We have entered the Altyn Dor (golden age, the time to heal the planet)." - Kyrgyz Elder and Healer Zhaparkul Ata

Dear Donors,

We give thanks to the ancestors and to each of you for your generous support for our Global Alliance for Big Cat Conservation work. This work in support of these sacred and disappearing apex predators continues only becuase of your generosity and through your spreading the word about our work with your friends, family, and colleagues. Thank you.

This quarter was an exciting one for the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network’s (WISN) Big Cat Alliance, specifically for our work with the Snow Leopards.

WISN has worked with snow leopard shamans and healers throughout Kyrgyzstan and other parts of Central Asia for more than a decade. One of the stories and part of the Kyrgyz oral tradition states that the snow leopard clan people migrated West (towards Europe) tens of thousands of years ago forming the European tribes, for example, the Celts. The Kyrgyz say this migration is one of the reasons there are so few snow leopards remaining in Kyrgyzstan, which of course has been exacerbated in more recent times by poaching, territory encroachment in the name of “development,” and more. However, until recently there was nothing to substantiate this oral history.

In addition to our big cat work, we also do research on the painted caves of Southern France—archeaoacoustics and more. On a trip there in 2016, by chance, we made an incredible discovery—that not only had an image of a snow leopard been painted in Chauvet Cave (in Southeastern France), but also actual bones had been discovered there. Hikers stumbled upon the cave (much as we stumbled upon the discovery of the snow leopard image and bones last year) in 1994. Researchers and scientists later determined these caves had been sealed for at least 26,000 years, so these bones and paintings are known to be at least that old if not older, probably closer to 30-35,000 years old. It was the first linkage that we are aware of linking the migration stories outlining the westward movement of the snow leopards and snow leopard clan people of Kyrgyzstan!

In October of this year, we returned, bringing with us one of our Big Cat alliance members Zhaparkul Ata to these caves to make an offering and to pray at this sacred site, at the foot of the snow leopard image. We also introduced him to one of the most world-renowned cave experts Jean Clottes, one of the first prehistorians to conclude that there is a strong argument to believe that much of the cave paintings and prehistoric art were in fact produced as a result of shamanic practice. The meeting was covered by local media and was an important step in bringing indigenous and Western science together for the purposes of conserving these magnificent beings so critical to the survival of our planet’s fragile eco systems, and for our very own survival.

Thank you again, dear Donors, for your ongoing support to make this work possible.

Coverage in the local papers

Jean Clottes and Zhaparkul sharing their wisdom

Snow leopard image in Chauvet

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Aug 9, 2017
Jaguars Continue to Guide Our Work--Summer 2017

By beth duncan | Program Manager

Global Big Cat Alliance

Jaguars Continue Guiding Our Work

Summer 2017 Report

Dear Donors,

Thank you so much to each of you who have so generously supported our work with the Global Alliance for Big Cat Conservation, work which is guided by the ancestors and the spirit of these big cats. We are so close to reaching our goal to support the Big Cats thanks to you!

This quarter, we continued our work in supporting the Jaguar through our work the Yawanawans, one of the last remaining intact indigenous communities in Brazil. After WISN sent an international anti-poaching and security expert down to the Brazilian rainforest last Spring (reported on in our Spring 2017 report), we worked side by side with the Yawanwans to develop a grant proposal/ plan that will be submitted to large scale international donors (attached).

Poaching and land encroachment remains the biggest threat to Jaguars in the region. Based on the recommendations of this international security expert, WISN was able to assist the Yawanawan community with funds to construct a command post for their anti-poaching efforts. The Yawanawans will also purchase anti-poaching supplies such as boats and radios, and will undergo anti-poaching training that will be led by the same international security expert. This is anticipated to take place in January or February of 2018.

Strength in Numbers

We also conducted meetings with a conservation organization based in Mexico City, which has purchased a large swath of land in the North of Mexico for Jaguar conservation. They are expanding their lands to include lands West of Mexico City. What they lack in cultural understanding of the indigenous communities that share their traditional lands with the Jaguars, they make up for in their scientific and conservation expertise. We will be linking up this organization with the Yawanawans at a meeting in January to strengthen the Big Cat Alliance network for Jaguar conservation. Their aim is to ultimately create a corridor of protection that extends from the rainforests of Brazil through Central America and up to North America. We believe that together, they can achieve this goal.

And together, with you, we can do all that we can to help them in these efforts.

Thank you again, Donors, for your continued support with this project.

Attachments:

Jaguar Bio-cultural Renewal Project Proposal (PDF)

1 Attachment

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May 12, 2017
Special Trip to the Amazon--Spring 2017 Report

By beth duncan | Program Manager

Int'l Security expert welcomed by community

Dear Donor,

As always we are immensely grateful to each of you who have supported our work, which is guided by the ancestors and the spirit of the Big Cats.

The Yawanawans of Brazil is an intact indigenous community that still practices sacred ancestral jaguar ceremonies. Though the land and climate where their communities are located are not an ideal terrain for jaguars, they have among the highest populations of jaguars in Brazil. They have lived in balance with the rainforest and jaguars for thousands of years, but because of modernization, poaching, and land grabs in recent years, jaguars, the immense biodiversity around them, and even the Yawanawans themselves--all intrinsically connected--are under severe threat.

Last month, WISN sent an international security and anti-poaching expert to Yawanawan territories to work with the community, learn from them, and develop a strategy for best practices to help create a corridor of protection for Jaguars that would ultimately extend up through the rest of South and Central America. The meetings went well and the security expert has been able to prepare a plan for anti-poaching measures that would include patrol boats, a central anti-poaching station, and the training of community members for anti-poaching procedures.

The plan will require additional funding, so every bit helps. The security expert will be traveling back to Brazil in June to continue Phase I of the plan and will continue to meet with the Yawanawan tribal leaders to discuss more ways in which Western and Indigenous science can work together to preserve the sacred jaguar as well as the sacred lands on which they live.

This past quarter, WISN has also been working with Yawanawan Chief and Indigenous Cultural Practitioner Tashka Yawanawa and his wife Laura to network during a recent trip to Washington, D.C. We have been networking with conservation contacts at the Smithsonian Institute as well as with potential funders, including an organization that has a large conservation area for desert jaguars in the Sonoran Desert region of Mexico, and an organization with a conservation facility in Costa Rica. If the momentum continues, the Yawanawan dream to create a corridor of jaguar protection that extends from the rainforests of Brazil through Mexico and the SW United States may, in fact, become a reality.

We will continue to raise funds for this effort as well as our work with the other big cats, and report back to you on some of our other developments in our next report.

As always, we are immensely grateful to you, our donors, for all you have done to make this possible. Thank you!

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