@phdthesis{CalderonQuinonez2023,
  author    = {Calder{\´o}n Qui{\~n}{\´o}nez, Ana Patricia},
  title     = {Ecology and conservation of the jaguar (Panthera onca) in Central America},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-61367},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-613671},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  pages     = {140},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {Conservation of the jaguar relies on holistic and transdisciplinary conservation strategies that integratively safeguard essential, connected habitats, sustain viable populations and their genetic exchange, and foster peaceful human-jaguar coexistence. These strategies define four research priorities to advance jaguar conservation throughout the species' range. In this thesis I provide several relevant ecological and sociological insights into these research priorities, each addressed in a separate chapter. I focus on the effects of anthropogenic landscapes on jaguar habitat use and population gene flow, spatial patterns of jaguar habitat suitability and functional population connectivity, and on innovative governance approaches which can work synergistically to help achieve human-wildlife conviviality. Furthermore, I translate these insights into recommendations for conservation practice by providing tools and suggestions that conservation managers and stakeholders can use to implement local actions but also make broad scale conservation decisions in Central America. In Chapter 2, I model regional habitat use of jaguars, producing spatially-explicit maps for management of key areas of habitat suitability. Using an occupancy model of 13-year-camera-trap occurrence data, I show that human influence has the strongest impact on jaguar habitat use, and that Jaguar Conservation Units are the most important reservoirs of high quality habitat in this region. I build upon these results by zooming in to an area of high habitat suitability loss in Chapter 3, northern Central America. Here I study the drivers of jaguar gene flow and I produce spatially-explicit maps for management of key areas of functional population connectivity in this region. I use microsatellite data and pseudo-optimized multiscale, multivariate resistance surfaces of gene flow to show that jaguar gene flow is influenced by environmental, and even more strongly, by human influence variables; and that the areas of lowest gene flow resistance largely coincide with the location of the Jaguar Conservation Units. Given that human activities significantly impact jaguar habitat use and gene flow, securing viable jaguar populations in anthropogenic landscapes also requires fostering peaceful human-wildlife coexistence. This is a complex challenge that cannot be met without transdisciplinary academic research and cross-sectoral, collaborative governance structures that effectively respond to the multiple challenges of such coexistence. With this in mind, I focus in Chapter 4 on carnivore conservation initiatives that apply transformative governance approaches to enact transformative change towards human-carnivore coexistence. Using the frameworks of transformative biodiversity governance and convivial conservation, I highlight in this chapter concrete pathways, supported by more inclusive, democratic forms of conservation decision-making and participation that promote truly transformative changes towards human-jaguar conviviality.},
  language  = {en}
}