\u201cWe found out a day later that they had discovered the body of a jaguar far away from the town [of Ixiamas]. They told us the body was headless. But what\u2019s worse is that after a while, they made the body disappear. There are only photos now, which were handed over to the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office to investigate,\u201d says Israel Fern\u00e1ndez, who is part of the neighborhood committee that fights against wildlife trafficking in Ixiamas.<\/p>\n
Everyone in town knows that the jaguar was found dead in the forest but no one knows exactly who killed it, though people have their suspicious. Fern\u00e1ndez says foreigners come to the municipality to hunt jaguars. \u201cIt\u2019s a criminal network. We know that they used to order via radio for jaguars to be killed and taken to San Borja or Trinidad [municipalities in the department of Beni so they could take their fangs and skin. Now they are more careful and don\u2019t make it public, he says.<\/p>\n
The unsolved case in Ixiamas<\/h2>\n
The community of Santa Fe, where the dead jaguar was found, is located 90 minutes from Ixiamas. It is a small town and one of the gateways to Madidi National Park. Community members prefer not to talk about this incident.<\/p>\n
However, one of the park rangers working in the area knows about the case and agrees with Israel Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s suspicions: \u201cThe case of the dead jaguar occurred outside of Madidi National Park, but it\u2019s not the only case; there have been others. Before [the traffickers] put adverts on the radio to buy dead jaguars. The community members themselves then killed and sold them. Now they do it more carefully. Some people, when drunk, confess that they\u2019ve killed jaguars and taken them to Beni. We\u2019ve seen that these trafficking networks are now very careful and contact each other by Telegram \u2014 that\u2019s what we\u2019ve found out,\u201d the park ranger explains to Mongabay Latam.<\/p>\n
The park ranger, who asks not to be named to preserve his job, also says that a few months ago, in September, they found a dead young jaguar, which had come out of the forest into Santa Fe looking for food, as its mother had been killed. \u201cThey asked us to investigate what had happened. We took a cage to the site and saw that the jaguar was hanging in a tree. It was hanging \u2013\u2013 they had tied it up so that it couldn\u2019t escape,\u201d says the park ranger, adding that they handed the body over to the authorities.<\/p>\n The animal\u2019s mother had been killed by community members who had used the excuse that she had killed six pigs that were being reared for food. The body of the adult female jaguar was never handed over to the relevant authorities, but it appeared days later, far from the area, headless and skinless.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mother jaguar has cubs and settles near livestock fields because there is guaranteed food. A mother jaguar will not walk for miles, leaving her cubs alone. She prefers to stay there [in the livestock fields] to hunt calves, dogs, chickens, ducks or pigs. She will then leave the area when the cubs are independent,\u201d the park ranger says.<\/p>\n Marcos Uzquiano, president of the Bolivian Association of Conservation Agents (ABOLAC by its Spanish acronym), considers jaguars to be family and has promised to protect them before it becomes too late to save the species. From his work, Uzquiano knows that this feline, which has the most powerful bite in the world, no longer lives in peace. International mafias \u201chave their eye on jaguars\u201d and look for them in the depths of the Bolivian forest to rip out their fangs after shooting them dead. Uzquiano says he believes there is a simple explanation: In Asian countries, jaguars are targeted as substitutes for the tiger (Panthera tigris, a species on the brink of extinction) and are trafficked to supply a consumer demand for their fangs.<\/p>\n For several years, Uzquiano has been receiving information that Chinese citizens are paying Bolivians for jaguar fangs. The park ranger and his team have been tracking this crime for years, determined to put a stop to it before more jaguars are killed, referring to them as his \u201cbrothers,\u201d as he has grown up with an awareness of them in his territory in San Buenaventura, in the department of La Paz, in Madidi National Park, since his childhood.<\/p>\n In fact, in 2018, his investigation resulted in the seizure of 185 jaguar fangs, the largest seizure of jaguar parts in Bolivia. This was considered one of the greatest achievements in the country\u2019s history of wildlife trafficking.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never been attacked by a jaguar,\u201d Uzquiano says, firmly intending to bust the myth that \u201ctigers\u201d attack people. Those who have attacked him \u2013\u2013 and many times \u2013\u2013 have been humans, whom he denounces for attacking nature or because, ostensibly as authorities, they do not take action.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only alternative is greater oversight, greater inter-institutional coordination between the different levels of government and also greater prevention by, and awareness among, communities. A direct strengthening of the work that park rangers do so that at least the jaguars that are within the protected area can really be protected, as they should be,\u201d he emphasizes.<\/p>\n The figures are shocking. According to data from the General Directorate of Biodiversity, under the Ministry of the Environment and Water, between 2014 and 2020, at least 760 jaguar fangs were seized in Bolivia in different operations from people who had bought or were trying to trade these parts, although there is no information on seizures per year.<\/p>\n What is worrying is that little is known about the institution in charge of holding the fangs and other jaguar parts, with some fangs having ended up in natural museums. The Bolivian authorities have no traceability to know the final whereabouts of the confiscated pieces.<\/p>\n From 2014 to 2020, the Bolivian Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office initiated 36 prosecutions for the crimes of prohibited hunting and fishing, destruction or deterioration of state property and biocide. Of these, only one jaguar-related case was convicted: the seizure of fangs that Uzquiano made in 2018 involving two Chinese nationals who have already served their three- and four-year prison sentences. Of the remaining cases, six are currently open (one of which has been since 2015), 20 have been rejected and the rest have been dismissed due to a lack of evidence.<\/p>\n The impunity enjoyed by those who traffic jaguars and their parts is nothing new in Ixiamas, which is why its inhabitants are not entirely surprised that nothing happened with the case of the jaguar killed last year. Despite community members filing a complaint, the investigation did not move forward because there were no witnesses. The case was also taken to the municipality of Apolo, in the north of La Paz, where the investigation was dropped.<\/p>\n Mongabay Latam went to the Ixiamas Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, where staff rejected the notion that there is an open investigation process on jaguar trafficking. This information was reiterated by the police and the municipality\u2019s agro-environmental court.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of these types of wildlife trafficking complaints occur in rural areas, some of which are difficult to access. Without a suitable vehicle, it\u2019s difficult to reach these areas to collect evidence. Sometimes the investigations are dismissed because there\u2019s no way to get there, there\u2019s no way to investigate due to a lack of logistics,\u201d explains an Ixiamas police officer, who asks to remain anonymous as they were not authorized to give statements.<\/p>\n The mayor of Ixiamas, F\u00e9lix Layme, assures that wildlife conservation policies are in place, especially in the Bajo Madidi Municipal Conservation and Management Area. Layme explains that agreements have been made with NGOs to enter Ixiamas and enable conservation plans for jaguars and other species living in the municipal protected area and Madidi National Park. However, jaguars are still being tortured.<\/p>\n \u201cIn our protected area, 63 species of mammals have been recorded, which is 16% of the total recorded for Bolivia. It\u2019s also home to 20 endangered species, including the yellow-spotted river turtle [Podocnemis unifilis] and the red-footed turtle [Geochelone carbonaria], which are victims of wildlife trafficking due to the trade in their eggs. Other vulnerable species in the area include the jaguar, the Peruvian spider monkey [Ateles chamek], the otter [Lutrinae], the marsh deer [Blastocerus dichotomus], the giant anteater [Myrmecophaga tridactyla] and the tapir [Tapirus]. It\u2019s therefore our mission to develop and continue implementing a care plan for the jaguar and other species,\u201d Layme emphasizes.<\/p>\n The mayor gave a list of good intentions, but did not offer precise data or figures on trafficking in jaguars and their parts in his municipality.<\/p>\n According to the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the jaguar\u2019s status is near threatened. In the case of Bolivia, the country\u2019s Red Book of Wild Vertebrate of Bolivia categorizes it as vulnerable.<\/p>\n The most updated figures and data are included in the Jaguar Conservation Action Plan 2020\u201325, prepared by the Bolivian Ministry of the Environment and Water, which details that since 2014 there has been \u201cpoaching\u201d of jaguars in the country in order to sell parts, such as fangs and skin, to the Asian market. However, this plan also includes data revealing that whole jaguar carcasses have been requested in order to make \u201cjaguar paste,\u201d which is used as an alternative to \u201ctiger paste\u201d for medicinal purposes in China and other Asian countries.<\/p>\n According to the conservation plan, \u201cThirty-five cases of jaguar trafficking have been verified (up to 2020), with a total of 723 fangs in addition to skulls and skins seized having come from Bolivia, representing the death of at least 200 jaguars. Of these 35 cases, 22 of them were directly linked to Asian markets, with 92% of the seized fangs destined for China.\u201d<\/p>\n This same document reveals that several jaguar trafficking businesses exist, which are run through social networks. \u201cAn analysis of online traffic in Bolivia has revealed 27 additional instances of jaguar trade, mainly through social networks, specifically Facebook, from the lowlands of the country. This analysis puts Bolivia in third place for instances of online trade in jaguar parts in Latin America, ranking only after Mexico and Brazil. In addition to fangs, trade in claws, skulls, skins, bones, fat and whiskers have been recorded, possibly for ornamental purposes, as status symbols, or for medicinal and superstitious beliefs,\u201d the document states.<\/p>\n The government plan also highlights that it is likely that the number of investigations and jaguars killed represent just a small fraction of their real number; given that jaguar trafficking is an illegal activity, it is difficult to obtain accurate figures for the jaguar trade. \u201cAdded to this is the low detection rate by control and law enforcement authorities,\u201d details the document.<\/p>\n Daniela Justiniano, an environmental activist with the organization Alas Chiquitanas, is backing a \u201cserious plan\u201d to save the jaguar. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of impunity on this issue. Chinese [citizens] come to Bolivia to work for Chinese companies, and in those areas [where they work], there are reports of biocide, including the jaguar. Why aren\u2019t there more drastic sanctions against those who kill jaguars? This should be reviewed in the legal framework,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The park ranger, who requested that their name be withheld, says they believe that offers of jaguar fangs through social networks and digital platforms have decreased because there is now more awareness among the population to protect jaguars and not because of state control. At the same time, the park ranger also questions the lack of a detailed official report on seizures of jaguar fangs and parts. On the other hand, several studies on wildlife trafficking mention that online tactics are becoming more cautious, which would also explain the decrease in trafficking cases detected through social networks.<\/p>\n In Bolivia, jaguars can be found in several lowland forest areas, from the Chaco Forest in the south of the country to the Amazon Rainforest in the north. However, in the last 50 years, the jaguar\u2019s historical range has decreased by more than 30% due to habitat loss and fragmentation caused mainly by agricultural expansion, according to the Noel Kempff Mercado National Museum of History.<\/p>\n \u00c1ngela N\u00fa\u00f1ez, a biologist at the Universidad Mayor de San Andr\u00e9s, is a fierce defender of jaguars in Bolivia. She recalls that in 2011, there was not a strong demand for jaguar parts, but that in 2014, she had alarmingly started to identify the trafficking of fangs. Prior to this, only skins used to be trafficked, she notes.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2014, cases of trafficking in jaguar parts had really started to significantly increase. In Bolivia, we connect this to the migration of Chinese citizens to our country, as they\u2019re the ones who started to create this demand,\u201d N\u00fa\u00f1ez tells Mongabay Latam.<\/p>\n According to N\u00fa\u00f1ez, there are between 6,000 and 7,000 jaguars in Bolivia, most of which are concentrated within Madidi National Park. \u201cThere are studies that directly link the increase in trafficking in jaguar parts to the arrival of Chinese companies throughout Latin America. This problem is not just occurring in Bolivia but has been confirmed as an issue in Peru, Colombia, Panama, Suriname, Guyana, Mexico and Brazil too. Cases have also been identified in Argentina, despite the fact that the jaguar population is very low there,\u201d N\u00fa\u00f1ez says.<\/p>\n In May 2024, there was news of a jaguar that had been run over on the highway between Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, specifically at kilometer 124, in the vicinity of Camp 3 of the Chinese company Sinohydro. The jaguar was later dismembered and skinned.<\/p>\n The report of the Forestry and Environmental Preservation Police (POFOMA) states that a Pakistani citizen, who worked for the Chinese company, \u201chad knowledge\u201d of the animal\u2019s head \u201cwithout its fangs.\u201d Meanwhile, in a container, the skin was found \u201cspread out on wooden boards, covered with salt,\u201d with \u201cthree decomposing limbs covered with soil.\u201d<\/p>\n Three people involved in the incident \u2013\u2013 two Bolivians and one Pakistani \u2013\u2013 were employees of Sinohydro, the company that is constructing the Cochabamba\u2013Santa Cruz highway. The case was suspended.<\/p>\n POFOMA\u2019s report states that three other Sinohydro employees \u2013\u2013 a legal adviser, the head of human resources and an environmental specialist \u2013\u2013 intervened so the parts were handed over to the police. The jaguar\u2019s skin, head, three limbs and four fangs were recovered and handed over to the Departmental Secretariat of the Environment and Water Resources of Cochabamba.<\/p>\n According to Rodrigo Herrera, director of the Environmental Justice Legal Association, after the jaguar was run over, the employees involved should have immediately filed a report with the environmental prosecutor. The prosecutor would then have had to inform both the police and the relevant departmental and national authorities. \u201cThis is because [the jaguar] is a native wild species that is part of the Bolivian biodiversity. The species is also protected by national and international law,\u201d Herrera says.<\/p>\n But this did not happen. Rather, the jaguar was transferred to a camp. According to the environmental website La Regi\u00f3n, which accessed images, the employees of the Chinese company dismembered and skinned the jaguar, so a committee of representatives from POFOMA, the Biodiversity Management Program of the government of Cochabamba and park rangers from Carrasco National Park went to the site to investigate the situation. Sinohydro was not part of the legal process.<\/p>\n Law 70 for the Defense of Animals against Acts of Cruelty and Mistreatment, enacted in June 2015 by former President Evo Morales, establishes that biocide is punishable by a prison sentence of 2-5 years and a financial penalty of 30-180 days of work for anyone who \u201ckills an animal with cruelty or futile motives.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the law only considers it aggravated, with one-third of the maximum penalty applied, if \u201cmore than one animal\u201d is killed, ignoring considerations such as the fact that the jaguar is a near threatened species.<\/p>\n Incidents similar to those of the jaguar that was run over and dismembered, the jaguar that was decapitated and the killed female and cub jaguars in Ixiamas are also taking place in many other regions in Bolivia.<\/p>\n Amador L\u00f3pez, a tourist agent in Rurrenabaque, recalls that between 2000 and 2010, jaguars could still be found in areas of this Amazonian town. \u201cOur tour packages had that option. People could see jaguars in some areas; for example, they\u2019d be lying on the beaches carefree, but now it\u2019s very difficult to see them,\u201d L\u00f3pez says.<\/p>\n L\u00f3pez also regretfully remembers what happened in 2016, when the Chinese citizen Liang Fiang Xiao paid for an advertisement on a radio in Rurrenabaque, offering $100 for jaguar fangs and another amount for a jaguar skull. In an undercover operation, one of Madidi\u2019s park rangers, posing as an ordinary citizen, called Xiao and told him that he could get the jaguar parts for him. When the two met, the park ranger asked him to show him the exact type of fangs he wanted. This operation was coordinated with POFOMA and was carried out at the Chinese citizen\u2019s house. There, seven parts were seized and he was arrested. It later came to light that he was released due to a lack of evidence.<\/p>\n Rurrenabaque was also in the news two years earlier, after having caught Yan Yixing with 300 jaguar fangs in December 2014. The man was arrested and later put under house arrest, but up until 2020, he was observed as being very active on the streets of Rurrenabaque, details L\u00f3pez, who also comments that he became feared in the town, where he was known as \u201cJab\u00edn.\u201d \u201cYan Yixing was notorious for his authority over some of his compatriots, and he went around showing off his money. He was not only involved in trafficking jaguar tusks and skins, he also had several other businesses, including a brothel. Then he disappeared like the wind,\u201d L\u00f3pez says.<\/p>\n Trafficking in jaguar parts is also commonplace in the city of Trinidad. In the market of the capital of the department of Beni it is not difficult to find a stall selling jaguar parts. According to online reports, one such stall combined handicrafts with wildlife trade, with other stalls displaying skulls of juvenile jaguars without any qualms. Each had their fangs intact.<\/p>\n In Trinidad, several operations have been carried out to put an end to these illegal sales, which even reach the city\u2019s prison, where inmates have made handicrafts using jaguar fangs and skins as part of their daily activities. The Bolivian police stopped such activity in light of the public condemnation.<\/p>\n All this worries Mar\u00eda Viscarra, a biologist who is part of the research team of WCS Bolivia and who, for more than 15 years, has traveled up and down the dense tropical forests of Bolivia and Peru, mainly the Greater Madidi\u2013Tambopata Landscape, installing camera traps to study the big cat.<\/p>\n Although some territories have seen a gradual recovery in jaguar numbers following an intense period of wildlife trafficking in the 1980s, the rapid increase in trafficking is once again a problem that Viscarra says she believes needs attention. The expert recognizes that there have been improvements with regards to sentencing, given that nobody was incarcerated for such crimes previously, \u201cbut the laws and regulations still need to be improved to punish people who commit crimes such as wildlife trafficking,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Viscarra also notes that sight must not be lost of the fact that trafficking in jaguar parts is just one of several threats the species is facing, such as fires, agricultural expansion and mining. Populations will decline as forests, such as the Greater Madidi\u2013Tambopata Landscape, become more fragmented, reducing their connectivity, she adds.<\/p>\nNo justice<\/h2>\n
Jaguar hunting has not stopped in Bolivia<\/h2>\n