According to this Mongabay article, “the estimated jaguar population in South America is around 1.95 jaguars per 100 square kilometers” with an estimated 12,845 jaguars in Bolivia. “Efforts to protect these animals range from national governments forming new protected areas, to transboundary projects such as the Jaguar 2030 Plan. Scientists are keen to raise the big cat’s conservation status on the IUCN Red List from near threatened to vulnerable.”
During the past 7 years, the trafficking of jaguars and their body parts by poachers has become a major threat to the species —700 jaguar parts seized in Bolivia alone in 2014. China is the main destination.
But the number of “cases stopped being counted in” Bolivia “in early 2019, as attention focused on environmental emergencies such as massive forest fires, as well as the political upheaval that led to a change of government, according to Ángela Núñez, a biologist specializing in jaguars who researches trafficking as part of Proyecto Operación Jaguar (Operation Jaguar Project) in Bolivia.
“Since 2014, we have seized around 700 fangs, including a seizure in China [of fangs] that originated from Bolivia,” Núñez says, emphasizing the need to continue monitoring this environmental crime. According to the Bolivian Ministry of Environment and Water, there have been more than 20 legal actions taken related to the illegal trafficking of fangs, with five of the cases resulting in criminal sentences.”
“Research conducted by the IUCN NL also found that the demand for jaguar parts in Bolivia began in 2013 and was advertised through radio stations and posters distributed in rural areas. Between 2014 and 2016, the trafficking problem was underway in earnest, with 300 jaguar parts found in 16 postal packages, 14 of them sent by Chinese citizens working in Bolivia.”
“The facts that link the trafficking of jaguar parts to Asia, particularly China, are sensitive, considering that the most affected countries, such as Bolivia and Suriname, have sought to diplomatically resolve the problem by establishing alliances with the Chinese community within their territories… “A study published in early June by the journal Conservation Biology examined the relationships between trafficking of wild cats and Chinese investments in South and Central America.. Among the main findings were that trafficking has been increasing and that the Chinese citizens involved in illegal activities don’t belong to the Asian communities already established in these countries, but are instead workers who travel to the Amazon to work on the megaprojects such as new dams and roads.”
“The libros rojos de la fauna silvestre (wildlife red books) of Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador — the national equivalents of the IUCN Red List — assess the jaguar populations in the Amazon as being vulnerable” However, “The lack of data in Bolivia is also evident, with many questions still unanswered: Where are the jaguars? How many are there? What spaces should be protected? According to Núñez from Proyecto Operación Jaguar, studies have focused mainly on two protected areas: Madidi and Kaa-Iya national parks in the Gran Chaco region. “Outside the protected areas, where the jaguar is most at risk, not many studies are carried out on the species,” she says….Operation Jaguar, an IUCN NL project carried out in Bolivia, Guyana and Suriname, aims to conserve the big cats by identifying the most vulnerable areas to focus on.”
“in Bolivia, Rob Wallace, a scientist who has studied jaguars for more than 20 years, highlights the Tambopata-Madidi transboundary landscape that encompasses natural areas in Peru (Tambopata National Reserve and Bahuaja-Sonene National Park) and Bolivia (Madidi National Park and Pilón Lajas Biosphere Reserve).”
“Since the beginning of 2000, together with colleagues Guido Ayala and María Viscarra, Wallace has carried out research using camera traps that revealed a density of 0.5 jaguars per 100 km2 in 2001. By 2008 the density was up to 2, and by 2014 between 5 and 6. Since then, however, hunters have put severe pressure on the species. In 2019, the scientists carried out new monitoring that will more reliably depict the big cat’s current situation.”