Enhancing Coexistence of Jaguars in Costa Rica: Design and Analysis of Community-Based Incentives

This project will design a community-program of incentives for the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment to use to increase adoption of practices to prevent jaguar damage on livestock and ultimately reduce human-jaguar conflicts and retaliatory killings throughout the country.

Specifically, the project will: 1) develop a typology of ranchers based on their motivations and needs in order to increase effectiveness of incentives; and 2) generate a policy proposal for Payments for Enhancing Coexistence (PEC) with big cats ready for submission to the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment for testing and institutionalization.

FWS involvement may include: providing technical assistance, negotiating and adapting activities identified in the project proposal, and key communications and interactions with the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment.