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Are Jaguars Paying the Price of Our Thirst for Palm Oil?

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Are Jaguars Paying the Price of Our Thirst for Palm Oil? Are Jaguars Paying the Price of Our Thirst for Palm Oil? A study on the effect of oil palm cultivation and on the attitudes towards jaguars in the Middle Magdalena region, Colombia. By Valeria Boron Supervised by: Dr. Marcus Rowcliffe & Dr. Esteban Payan September 2012 A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science and the Diploma of Imperial College London. I, Valeria Boron, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 CONTENTS List of Acronyms……………………………………………………………………… 5 Figures and Tables…………………………………………………………………… 6 Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….. 8 Awknowledments……………………………………………………………………. 10 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………. 12 1.1 Problem statement…………………………………………………………. 12 1.1.1 The Middle Magdalena Region………………………………………… 13 1.2 Project significance………………………………………………………… 14 1.3 Project objectives…………………………………………………………... 15 2. Background………………………………………………………………………. 17 2.1 The jaguar………………………………………………………………….. 17 2.2 Why conserve jaguars? …………………………………………………….. 18 2.3 Measuring habitat use……………………………………………………… 19 2.3.1 Jaguar habitat use………………………………………………………. 19 2.3.2 Habitat use by other species……………………………………………. 20 2.4 Attitudes towards jaguars…………………………………………………... 21 2.5 Palm oil…………………………………………………………………….. 22 3. Methods…………………………………………………………………………... 26 3.1 Conceptual framework……………………………………………………... 26 3.2 Study area………………………………………………………………….. 27 3.3 Camera trapping…………………………………………………………… 28 3.4 Habitat characteristics recording…………………………………………… 28 3.5 Interviews………………………………………………………………….. 29 3.6 Analyses….………………………………………………………………… 30 3.6.1 Camera trap and environmental data………………………………….... 30 3.6.2 Interviews data…………………………………………………………. 32 4. Results……………………………………………………………………………. 33 4.1 Camera trapping…………………………………………………………… 33 4.1.1 All species……………………………………………………………... 33 4.1.2 Species of focus……………………………………………………….. 37 4.2 Occupancy and habitat use analyses for the jaguar and the agouti………….. 41 4.3 Attitudes towards jaguars.………………………………………………….. 43 5. Discussion………………………………………………………………………... 47 5.1 Camera trapping and impact of oil palm cultivation………………………... 47 5.1.1 Species and habitat types……………………………………………… 49 5.2 Habitat use and occupancy analyses………………………………………... 51 5.3 People attitudes towards jaguars…………………………………………… 52 3 5.4 Evidence from results in relation to project objectives and research questions………………………………………………………………….... 54 5.5 Conclusion……………………………………………………………….… 55 References……………………………………………………………………………. 57 Appendix I……………………………………………………………………………. 66 I.I Jaguar habitat use…………………………………………………………...... 66 I.II Different names for palm oil and its derivatives…………………………….... 67 I.III The oil palm production chain: stages and products………………………...… 67 Appendix II…………………………………………………………………………... 68 II.I Characterization of the oil palm plantation concession “El Hato”………….... 68 II.II Interviews script…………………………………………………………....... 69 Appendix III………………………………………………………………………….. 72 III.I Photo-inventory of mammal and bird species recorded in the study area…….. 72 4 LIST OF ACRONYMS JCU(s) Jaguar Conservation Unit(s) IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature RAI(s) Relative Abundance Index (Indices) CT(s) Camera Trap(s) RSPO Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil PA(s) Ptotected area(s) 5 FIGURES Fig. 1.1 Map of Panthera’s Jaguar Corridor Initiative. Corridors of concern are corridors less than 10km in width at any point along their length. The JCUs mapped were defined in 2006. Source: Panthera (2012)..………………………………………………….…...................... 12 Fig. 1.2 JCUs (green) and modeled corridors between them (red), in Colombia. The country JCUs were redefined and updated from Fig.1.1. The important part of the Middle Magdalena region for jaguar connectivity is circled. The corridor directly linking San Lucas with the Orinoquia population (most likely not in use by jaguars) is crossed. Modified from Panthera Colombia (2011)....………………………………………………….….....................................13 Fig. 2.1 Jaguar mother and two cubs photo-captured in the study area…………………......17 Fig. 2.2 Cultural value of jaguars. From left to right: the flag of the department of the Amazonas in Colombia, a painting by Jorge Rajadell, and a “Moche Jaguar” (300AD), Larco Museum, Lima.........................................................................................................................................18 Fig. 3.1 Diagram representing the conceptual framework of the project....................................23 Fig. 2.3 From left to right: departments of Colombia with oil palm cultivation (green), an oil palm plantation, and oil palm fruit.......................................................................................................26 Fig. 3.2 Map of the study area, by Carolina Soto.............................................................................27 Fig. 3.3 Vegetation types and project activities. (a) Edge of secondary forest in El Hato, (b) oil palm cultivated area in El Hato, (c) retrieving camera trap data in El Hato, (d) conducting interviews in the community Cerrito. Photos a-b by V. Boron, c-d by C.M.Wagner……..…..28 Fig 4.1 Species accumulation curves. (a) All species; (b) mammals and birds considered separately..................................................................................................................................................35 Fig. 4.2 Species of focus most frequently photo-captured. From left to right: Central American agouti (Dasyprocta punctuata), jaguar (Panthera onca), and crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorous). .............................................................................................................................................37 Fig. 4.3 (a) The four felids photo-captured in the study area. From left to right: jaguar, puma, ocelot, and jaguarundi. (b) Locations of felid detection. Highlighted cells indicate detection of felids at camera stations (1-23).............................................................................................................38 Fig. 4.4 RAIs for the Species of Focus, calculated directly from the number of independent capture events and the number of trap nights for each palm edge habitat, and expressed as records per 100 trap nights. .................................................................................................................39 Fig.4.5 Cumulative RAIs for the Species of Focus and Felidae and prey species RAIs for the Species of Focus, calculated directly from the number of independent capture events and the number of trap nights for each habitat type, and expressed as records per 100 trap night...…40 Fig. 4.6 Daily activity patterns of felids and most common prey species (N=number of independent capture events (y axes) per time interval, expressed as % of the total number.....41 6 Fig. 4.7 Communities’ preference (“Yes” or “No”) regarding the sharing of lands with jaguars, expressed as percentages of “Yes” and “No” per each community………….…..…43 Fig. 4.8 Communities’ opinion on whether the jaguar is a problematic animal (“Yes”, “No” and “Could be”), expressed per each community as percentages of respondents giving each answer. .....................................................................................................................................................44 Fig. 4.9 Reasons for considering the jaguar a problematic animal, expressed as percentages of respondents giving each reason. ..........................................................................................................44 Fig. 4.10 Genders’ opinion on whether jaguar can attack people without being provocked (“Yes”, “No” and “Maybe”), expressed per each gender as percentages of respondents giving each answer..............................................................................................................................................45 Fig. 4.11 Reasons for conserving jaguars, expressed as percentages of respondents giving each reason (this was an open question, however respondents only gave one reason)……………45 Fig. 4.12 Genders’ opinion on whether jaguar have increased (“More”) or decreased (“Less”) in number, expressed per each gender as percentages of respondents giving each answer…...46 TABLES Table 4.1 List of species recorded by camera traps in study area and their IUCN and Regional Red List categories..................................................................................................................................33 Table 4.2 Number of independent photos and Relative Abundance Indeces (RAIs) per 100 trap nights for mammals and birds detected. Highlighted rows contain “Species of Focus”. Bold species name indicate species are listed in IUCN or Regional Red Lists.............................35 Table 4.3 Occupancy models for the jaguar (J1-J17) and the central american agouti (A1-A8). Covariates “vehicles”, “people”, “livestock”, and ”prey” were included as RAIs. “PR” stand for “Palm/Riparian” habitat, hence for vicinity of water. ...............................................................41 Table 5.1 Summary of project’s findings in relation to initial objectives and research questions. .................................................................................................................................................54 Word Count: 12,901
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