WE PREVENT EXTINCTIONS
With the extreme deforestation and climate change Jocotoco has made sensible science-based decision to prevent extinctions. With so much on the line making the right decisions when faced with shifting environmental, social, and political circumstances requires a compass. Therefore, we developed this 10-year conservation strategy to guide our work. It is centered around three components: (1) amplifying our impact on a large scale, (2) saving highly threatened species through adaptive management, and (3) improving our measurements to assess and continuously improve conservation outcomes.
FROM RESERVES TO PROGRAMS
Reserves are the most effective means to safeguard biodiversity. However, even with our exemplary efforts in expanding and managing them, they risk becoming isolated. To counter this, we have steered our expansion towards improving connectivity with national protected areas. When established strategically at the frontline of encroachment, a reserve of a few thousand hectares can have a disproportionate impact on many thousands of hectares of old-growth hinterland. Now we are going even further, complementing our effective in-house management with proactive leadership to achieve conservation goals that extend far beyond our reserves. That includes capacity building, resource channeling, legal actions, and collaboration agreements with national, municipal, communitarian and other private conservation areas. We have already built five regional programs in zones where we have the opportunity to make a difference. By embracing them, we will foster connectivity, bolster ecological resilience, and ensure the sustained protection of biodiversity at a landscape level.
SPECIES-SPECIFIC ACTIONS
Protecting significant portions of ecosystems allows most species to thrive. Some, however, need extra help. We apply a set of criteria to identify them, starting with IUCN categories. We also consider recently discovered, rediscovered (i.e. thought to be extinct) or restricted-range species which are not yet assessed and even species listed as non-threatened by IUCN that show clear signs of risk, as IUCN reassessment may take time. All these species have in common that their populations are believed to be precariously small. An initial list of approx. 400 species that meet these criteria is reduced to ~30 species for which Jocotoco can make a strong difference. The exact number can change as data are updated. The initial actions are always to protect their habitat and to monitor population size. When alerts show up, further actions are triggered to increase their population, such as reproduction assistance or management of ecological requirements.
RESEARCH AND MONITORING
Science is the basis of successful conservation actions. Our strategy contains quantifying, analyzing, and improving our results. It rests on our capacity to gather data on complex processes, such as ecosystem processes or population estimates of elusive species. Often, the solution is to forge close partnerships with universities and research institutes. Our goal is to become ever more effective and efficient.