Education of rural children is critical to have the next generation be resilient and part of protecting wildlife as their natural heritage. 

Children will participate at schools with weekly and ongoing environmental education whilst cooperating other subjects in the program as well such as English, maths, art etc to get the maximum amount of benefit of education. The environmental education classes focusses on basic environmental teachings and nature conservation. Schools are uplifted through redecorating classrooms to make them more comfortable learning environments for both teachers and learners. Learners take trips to the protected area to experience and learn about wildlife first hand.

Outside curriculums are made available for children wishing to continue after the school program. These programs consist of the Scout program and assisting Environmental Monitors to keep the community clean, assist with taking care of pets and work animals and cattle. Not only does this benefit the animals through the care they receive through the program, but also teaches children the importance of taking care of animals, which will translate to the importance of taking care of wildlife.

The upliftment through women is achieved through:

• Financial independence
• Raising self-worth and confidence
• Education and skill development
• Becoming role models within the community as well as internationally.

Despite the strong dependence of the local economy on natural resources, the concept of ecosystem services is new to most of the actors intervening in the periphery of the Faro National Park.

  In addition, due to the lack of knowledge about natural processes, the loss of these resources has been noted, but their decline has often not been attributed to current practices.  Existing communal development plans focus on sectors such as water, agriculture and infrastructure, without taking into account the importance of ecosystem services.  A meeting and training enabled stakeholders from different sectors to discuss the challenges of conservation of ecosystem services and increase their knowledge in the field.

  In order to improve the process of drawing up plans and building the capacities of decision-makers at the local level, several workshops were organized with the aim of familiarizing actors with the “ecosystem services” approach and its application during the process.  planning.

Essential elements for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services for sustainable development are the equitable participation of stakeholders and the organizational development of local management associations.  The project has set up a stakeholder forum bringing together all the sectors involved in the park to identify areas of ecological, economic and social interest for which there is a will of the populations to protect and manage them.  Its mission is to manage conflicts related to the exploitation and conservation of natural resources, to promote the capacity building of actors, to encourage the emergence of research in the sustainable management of natural resources.  This forum has the technical support of the project for their organizational development as well as for technical and financial management, including the monitoring of the rules for the use of their resources.  These rules of use were drawn up in a participatory manner for each buffer zone.  To do this, a series of consultation sessions was organized for each village.

The transhumant conference is a consultation platform that brings together local and foreign transhumant pastoralists in order to discuss the resolution of conflicts between breeders - farmers, breeders - gamekeepers and wild animal breeders.

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.

For the Yaguará Panama Foundation, communication is vital at all levels, even though we are a science-based organization. Science must be translated to the community and to other scientists, but also in media that have real impact with communities, decision makers, students of all levels and people from a child to a senior citizen. In order to reach everyone, we communicate in international impact magazines such as National Geographic, which is seen by millions of people around the world. This project is related to the topic of agriculture and since 2014 every month we publish in a national magazine called Ecos del Agro, which reaches more than 10,000 people. We also publish in the traditional written press several articles a year. We go on radio and TV about 10 to 20 times a year, in addition to our social networks. We give virtual talks (in pandemic: more than 11,000 people have listened to our presentations), and face-to-face, workshops. If we REALLY want to reach the majority of people we must communicate in all available media, because those who watch or see one, do not see others and so on.

One of the interesting aspects of this project is to measure the biodiversity in each of the farms and to know how many jaguars there are or cross the farms. For this we monitor them with camera traps. As each jaguar has unique spotting patterns for each individual, it is possible to know how many there are and record when they are in the different farms. In addition, we combine the camera traps with GPS collars that we place on the jaguars on the farms to know where they move, how many farms they visit and how much time they spend on the farm. This helps us understand the jaguar dynamics in an environment dominated by cattle ranchers and forest corridors between farms.

With the data from the camera traps and GPS collars we have been able to give the community a better understanding of the jaguar and why it is an important species for the ecosystems and for our own existence as human beings.

Based on the information collected we can measure indicators such as: number of jaguars per year and abundance of other mammals that are important prey for the jaguar, and we can help local and national decision makers and farm management decision makers.

Through various trainings, exercises and case studies, local stakeholders such as technicians, firefighters, secretaries of agriculture and planning were guided in developing skills for the management and use of information built through Geographic Information Systems - GIS. For this purpose, we illustrated and practiced with free access and digital tools such as Q-Gis, to strengthen the analysis of information and cartographic graphic outputs for processes such as land use, water network, planning, zoning and municipal ordinance. In addition, brochures were prepared with the information obtained at the technical-cartographic level to facilitate the information to the stakeholders.