Guyana pledges to protect jaguars

The South American nation is in talks to establish a 'jaguar corridor'

a network of pathways that would link core populations


[ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذه الصورة]




The lushly forested nation of [ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذا الرابط] on Thursday joined a regional pact

to protect jaguars, the elusive spotted cat that is

the biggest land predator in the [ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذا الرابط] but has become

vulnerable as expanded agriculture and mining

carves away at their fragmented habitat.



Leaders of the government's environment ministry were signing

an agreement with the New York-based conservation

group [ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذا الرابط], which is trying to establish a "jaguar corridor",

a network of pathways that would link core jaguar populations

from northern Argentina to Mexico. Guyana is pledging to ensure

the protection of jaguars, the national animal

that is a near-threatened species.



The South American nation, with some of the region's least

spoiled wilderness, joins Colombia and nations in central America

in recognising the corridor and agreeing to work towards

the long-term conservation of jaguars, according to Esteban Payan,

regional director for Panthera's northern South America jaguar program.



A network of cameras equipped with motion sensors and fixed to

tree trunks has revealed tantalising glimpses of sleek,

solitary jaguars slinking through Guyana's dense rainforests

and vast grasslands stretching to the country's border with Brazil.



Scientists reported finding a relatively healthy jaguar density of

three to four [ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذا الرابط] per 161 miles in Guyana's southern Rupununi savannah.

That means that preserving grasslands are as important

to conservation of jaguars as protecting

the dense rainforests, they say.



Evi Paemelaere, a Belgian jaguar scientist with Panthera,

said villagers in remote spots in Guyana have helped her set up

cameras along the roads and hunting trails

that the big cats like to travel on.



"Amerindians are very keen on being part of the project,

" she said from the capital of Georgetown.



Jaguars once roamed widely from the south-western United States

to Argentina, but have lost nearly half of their natural territory

and have disappeared altogether from some countries.

Heavy hunting for their spotted coats decimated their numbers

in the 1960s and early 1970s until the pelt trade was largely halted.

No one has any reliable estimates of how many jaguars are left

in the wild, where they prey on peccaries, tapirs and,

as they are powerful swimmers, river turtles.



Guyana, a country roughly the size of the US state of Idaho

where most of the 756,000 inhabitants live along its Atlantic

coastline, has been widely recognised for balancing progress

with preservation. In 2009, it began a low-carbon push aimed

at maintaining very low rates of deforestation and combating

climate change, while also promoting economic development.

It could receive up to $250m from Norway by 2015 as

an incentive to protect its forests through sustainable mining,

timber harvesting and other projects.



Alan Rabinowitz, Panthera's CEO and a zoologist whose research in Belize

in the 1980s led to the creation of the world's first jaguar preserve,

said Guyana's signing of the jaguar agreement "demonstrates

the government's continued commitment to its legacy of conservation

alongside economic progress and diversification".