Jaguar Conservation Units as an Effective Tool in a Payment for Ecosystem Services Scheme for an Apex Predator

ABSTRACT In this paper, we propose an operational framework for Jaguar Conservation Units (JCUs), emphasizing the role of private rural properties in conserving jaguar populations in Brazil while mitigating human–jaguar conflicts and supporting the implementation of payments for the species' environmental services. Jaguars ( Panthera onca ) prey on domestic livestock, that can lead to retaliatory killings of jaguars by ranchers. In this context, our study aims to analyze the environmental and economic parameters associated with the ecosystem services provided by jaguars, in order to use JCUs as a starting point to develop a Payment for Environmental Services (PES) scheme to support jaguar conservation. This would involve promoting forest code compliance, maintaining habitat connectivity, and compensating cattle predation, using data from Mato Grosso do Sul (MS), Brazil. Based on spatial analyses of occurrence records, we identified and reshaped three JCUs in MS and evaluated the land use patterns within each one, discussing the basis to implement a PES scheme. Our findings demonstrate the advantages of implementing such schemes and reveal that the cost of maintaining jaguar populations through a PES, with funds from several independent sources, would be feasible and important for one of the largest jaguar populations in Brazil.