My Nonprofit Reviews

As a long time conservation donor, I’ve become increasingly selective in directing my contributions to small, lean, and energetic organizations with deep experience in targeted projects. The Northern Jaguar Project is just such an organization. Focusing on jaguars as an ‘umbrella species’, the group both buys ranch lands and develops alliances with practicing ranchers, in order to protect jaguars and cohabiting species in a huge, remote, and remarkably pristine landscape in east-central Sonora, Mexico. Their Viviendo con Felinos program (a possible model for wolf reintroductions?) pays ranchers for jaguar images captured on trail cameras, and thus encourages protection, rather than elimination, of these top predators. Local cowboys (vaqueros) with extensive knowledge of the habitat, and locally trained biologists, are trained to service trail cameras and recognize cat sign on the organization’s private lands, and the cowboys also maintain ranch infrastructure. Leadership of the group has extensive experience in ranching, conservation, and the targeted geographic area. Successful breeding of jaguars is well documented, and the large area of extremely isolated and suitable jaguar habitat makes this a potential source area for cats (ocelot as well as jaguar) that might eventually contribute to breeding populations in the U.S. On a recent trip to the NJP Reserve (August, 2016), I verified first hand that my donations are put to good use and not wasted on unnecessary overhead.