High-level meeting in Panama with strategic allies to minimize human-jaguar conflict
Fundación Yaguará Panamá
Strategic alliances with different partners
The regent in Ambiente is the Ministry of Environment and we have been working with them since 1998, but in 2017 we signed a cooperation agreement to minimize the jaguar-human conflict through a preventive management project to seek solutions. We have also achieved an alliance with USFWS to work farm management plans, anti-predation measures, monitoring with cameras and collars with the jaguar. We work with the Small Grants Program/UNDP/GEF and are working on a camera trap monitoring project in Darien and support/advice to community-based organizations, so that communities know how to solve and take to another level what is happening in their areas. Nat Geo supports us in the most extensive camera trap monitoring project in Panama in Darien, in addition to helping us in outreach and communications at the international level. With the Howard Huge Medical Institute (HHMI) we work in scientific research with camera traps, in addition to disseminating, communicating and educating through their digital platforms what we find in the Darien National Park. Other important alliances are the Ministry of Tourism, ANAGAN, ISA, University of Panama, UNEP. We work with some indigenous groups and more than 10 community-based organizations distributed throughout the country.
Each and every one of the alliances are important, since some of them work on similar but not the same topics, and all of them are intertwined so that these projects are medium and long term, and those that involve the communities can be very long term projects, and we are talking about a minimum of 6 years. And for this to happen, the alliances with people, communities, decision makers and the executing agency, donors, there must be trust and be able to work as a team and we have achieved this with everyone. Never belittle a person who wants to help.
Each and every one of the alliances are important, since some of them work on similar but not the same topics, and all of them are intertwined so that these projects are medium and long term, and those that involve the communities can be very long term projects, and we are talking about a minimum of 6 to 10 years of duration. And for this to happen, the alliances with the people, communities, decision-makers and executing agency, donors, must have trust and be able to work as a team, and we have achieved this with everyone. Never underestimate a person in the community who wants to help and always listen and then look for ways to move forward.