Jaguar Conservation in Brazil : The Role of Protected Areas

Abstract

Brazil holds 50% of the jaguar’s current range, much of it centring in the Amazon basin, which has long been consi- dered the species’ stronghold. Jaguars also range across four other biomes of Brazil (Cerrado, Caatinga, Pantanal and Atlantic Forest). We estimated jaguar population size for reserves and indigenous lands > 100km2 using biome-specific density estimates. These results informed a population viability analysis (PVA) to assess the potential of the protected areas system for jaguar conservation in the five biomes. Mean protected area and jaguar population size varied significantly among biomes: the Atlantic Forest biome had the smallest and the Amazon forest biome the largest mean area and mean population sizes (431 km2 and 10 individuals, and 10,993 km2 and 311 individuals, respectively). Based on the PVA, jaguar populations >85 individuals were viable for > 200 years. These populations accounted for 90% of all protected jaguars, but are mostly restricted to the Amazon biome. In the other biomes, ≥ 50 % of populations were viable for up to 10 years only. Only in the Amazon are protected areas alone large enough to have the potential for long- term jaguar conservation. In other more fragmented biomes, landscape-scale conservation will be essential to sustain jaguar populations over the long term.