Development & Aid, Environment, Tierramerica - Ecobrief

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Collecting Funds to Protect Jaguar

MEXICO CITY, Jul 15 2006 (IPS) - The Mexican environmental group Naturalia launched a national fundraising effort last weekend to expand the 4,000-hectare protected area of the jaguar (Panthera onca) set aside in the northern state of Sonora in 2003.

Donations will be collected at all of the country's zoos, which receive 25 million visitors annually, Oscar Moctezuma, Naturalia director and member of an Environment Ministry consultative committee, told Tierramérica.

“The jaguar will be the first species of our campaign. Next year we will begin a new campaign to support the preservation of another endangered species,” he added, as the protected area is home to other types of animals as well.

There are about 150 jaguars in northwestern Mexico, said Moctezuma, but there are no figures available about the population of this big cat in the rest of the country.