This study opens a new opportunity for jaguar conservation in North America that could help address threats from habitat losses, climate change and border infrastructure.
This case study demonstrates how a diversity of social, political, and economic forces in border regions can create unique pressures on wildlife habitat. Conservation of landscapes that host a wide range of land uses, jurisdictions, and competing for management goals can be challenging, especially when considering habitat needs of wide-ranging species. However, there are unique… Continue reading “A Mosaic of Land Tenure and Ownership Creates Challenges and Opportunities for Transboundary Conservation in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands”…
Finalized in July 2018 but not released until April 2019, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s new Jaguar Recovery Plan reaffirms Wildlands Network’s key strategies for protecting and enhancing jaguar populations in Mexico and the U.S., while also demonstrating the need for continued robust advocacy with government officials to improve and strengthen the official recovery programs. The recovery plan details the necessity for stronger habitat connectivity through the usage of wildlife crossings and identifying new key habitat areas were jaguars can successfully be reintroduced.
This report summarizes the most relevant and up-to-date information on four charismatic species affected by the fragmentation of habitat and disruption of movement corridors resulting from the existing and proposed border infrastructure and associated militarization. It focuses on the Arizona-Sonora border and covers a small portion of western New Mexico’s border with Chihuahua, but its framework and broad themes are relevant to any evaluation of impacts to wildlife across the entire U.S.-Mexico border.
The jaguar is listed as endangered throughout its range under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA), as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). Historically, the jaguar inhabited 21 countries throughout the Americas, from the U.S. south into Argentina. Currently, jaguars are found in 19 countries: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, United States (U.S.), and Venezuela. The species is believed to be extirpated from El Salvador and Uruguay. The goal of this revised recovery plan is to recover and delist the jaguar, with downlisting from endangered to threatened status as an intermediate goal.