Animal Welfare Peru Project #8348

Protecting Jaguars and Biodiversity in the Amazon

by Action Change (Formerly GVI Trust)

Project Report | Apr 5, 2018
Working towards SDG 15 "Life on Land"

By Cynthia Arochi | Country Director

Dear Supporters,

GVI has been working in the Southern end of the Tortuguero National Park for the last 8 years. As with all GVI projects, the conservation base at Jalova in Costa Rica works towards long-term objectives, and ensures these objectives work within the framework set out by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. One of the goals is “Life on Land,” and the continued conservation and study of species here in Tortuguero National Park is one of the key focuses of the work we do here. The diversity of vertebrate species so far this year has been spectacular, which continues to be an indicator of a good recovery and healthy forest. For example, on one night forest survey a record was broken, a grand total of 11 different snakes were seen on the survey transect. Likewise, the calm, soothing canals have also seen some new faces this year. Already, 4 new species have been added to the list with only 11 surveys taking place. The species are the Royal Tern, Laughing Gull, Chestnut-headed Orependola, and the Greater Yellowlegs. Moreover, in mid January a new butterfly survey project started as there seems to be very little documentation on some butterfly species and they also act as biodiversity indicators.

Finally, this quarter we continued our partnership with ‘Coastal Jaguar Conservation’, and were able to provide them with a donation to buy equipment in order to continue working on this area in partnership with GVI staff and volunteers. Their key goals are to support the conservation of wild cat species and their prey species in Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica, with a primary focus on the predator-prey relationship between the nesting sea turtle population and the local jaguar population. The data generated by their project is provided to the administration of the park and ACTO (Área de Conservación Tortuguero, for its acronym in Spanish) to help support future management plans in the area. Because of their findings and recommendations, ACTO has recently expanded the ‘Zone of Absolute Protection’ of the park. Further to this, their recommendations regarding appropriate behaviour during encounters with the wild felid population (primarily the jaguar) have been made obligatory for all organisations operating within the park.

The support provided by you, GVI and The GVI Trust has allowed this project to continue its long-term monitoring efforts, to make more informed management recommendations and to gain a greater insight into the wild cats and their prey species inhabiting the park. This has also allowed their project, in collaboration with previous and current GVI staff to publish several scientific papers in peer reviewed journals, among other dissemination activities.

As always, we would like to thank you for helping us through another quarter!

All the best,

GVI Jalova

Attachments:

Mural_Coastal_Jaguar_Conservation_Project.pdf (PDF)

3 Attachments

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Jan 9, 2018
2017 Round up for Jalova

By Mac | Base Manager

Dear Supporters,

We hope you enjoy our yearly round up as much as we enjoyed making it all happen!

Round up fundraising this year

Throughout 2017 the staff and volunteers of Jalova base have worked hard to improve conservation efforts within Tortuguero National Park, and increase awareness of the issues facing the area. The support of The GVI Charitable Trust has helped us in this goal.

The team completed one major fundraising effort, with all staff and volunteers joining together in 24 - hours of surveys. It was a mammoth effort from all involved, with a total of 104 different species being
recorded during the process.

In total, $1000 was raised by this fundraising challenge.

What projects we used donations for

The goal of the fundraising was to buy binoculars for our partners MINAE, who run the National Park. They are going to use these binoculars to help with education of the local children at the high school. Education is the first and most important step in conservation. Without increasing knowledge of the species within the park, and the necessity behind their continued protection, our conservation efforts would be in vain. 10 pairs of binoculars were bought, and we hope to receive updates from the park rangers on how their lectures and lessons with the local community go.

From the funds from previous years we were able to donate 1,828USD to our Jaguar Conservation partners, Coastal jaguar Conservation, in order to buy equipment like camera traps, batteries, etc to continue with this essential research on jaguars and their dynamics.

How these projects have impacted lives

Tortuguero National Park, where Jalova Research Station is located, is a protected area for thousands of species; some of them listed in the IUCN Red list of endangered or vulnerable species. Working in partnership with SINAC, Coastal Jaguar Conservation and The Sea Turtle Conservancy, we work towards the conservation and research of birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles found within the park.

One of the biggest issues facing conservation is the lack of understanding and education amongst people regarding the benefits of conservation. This is something that will be rectified in the local school with the use of the binoculars.

Throughout the year we get volunteers and interns who get trained in identifying different species as well as learning about their importance. Living in a remote location gives the participants the opportunity to live and experience a natural and sustainable way of living.

What your plans for 2018

During 2018, we will be supporting our local partners, Coastal Jaguar Conservation, in achieving their objectives specifically in the Southern part of Tortuguero National Park. We also intend to install more solar panels on base to further reduce our use of the generator. There are also plans to install a second water collection storage to continue to ensure our impact on the environment is as minimal as possible.

Thank you for assisting us in all that we do here in Jalova, we are so excited to share 2018 with you!

With Gratitude,

GVI Jalova

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Oct 13, 2017
Ongoing Data Collection for Costa Rica

By Cynthia Zendeias | Country Director

Dear Supporters,

The coastal zone of Tortuguero National Park, is an iconic nesting area for green turtles and an important area for jaguar conservation. Due to the high availability of prey species such as marine turtles, an important population of jaguars (resident and migratory) have been identified here too.

According to the IUCN Red list, green turtles are classified as endangered species, which means that its population is decreasing. Jaguars are classified as near threatened - this means that if habitat loss, poaching of prey and fragmentation of populations continue at the current rate the species will likely qualify for Vulnerable in the near future (http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/15953/0). Studying, preserving, protecting and raising awareness on these species are key activities to keep or restore their populations. This is a joint effort with many stakeholders involved, which involves Scientific data collection, input and data analysis, communication, education, stronger policies creation, law inforcement and awareness raise for its conservation.

GVI has been working in this region since 2010 in partnership with the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment (MINAE-ACTO), The Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC), Panthera and more recently with Coastal Jaguar Conservation (CJC), who have developed different research lines and protocols for its conservation and awareness activities. Hence, volunteers and staff have been collecting data following our partners protocols and methodologies, which has helped to provide information on jaguar and turtle dynamics, breeding, behaviour and for an ongoing jaguar genetics connectivity study; all of which has proved to be key in order to understand these species and preserve them. For instance, this year (2017), thanks to the data collected throughout the years, Coastal Jaguar Conservation worked together with the Park authorities in order to close an area of the National Park to tourism activities, due to the high jaguar activity found. Together with GVI, different workshops and activities related to jaguar and turtle conservation have been done in the close by communities.

In order to gather the data, CJC, STC along with GVI staff and volunteers, carry on permanent research projects which involves strict training and data revision in order to make sure that the data is accurate and usable to compare with other sites or to help decision makers. These types of projects involve a range of different types of equipment, which, depending on the project, it is provided by GVI, the volunteers and it's local partners.

For example, the turtle project, STC provides the tagging marks, callipers, etc; for jaguars, CJC supported by GVI, provides camera traps, batteries etc. Safety is a key part of the data gathering, so having reliable communications in case an emergency happens during the fieldwork is essential in order to ensure the sustainability of the project. Taking into consideration that the work done is in a remote location with no reliable phone cover, as only certain parts of the beach have signal, satellite phones were made available in order to support the ongoing project.

With Love,

Cynthia Zendeias

Costa Rica Country Director

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