Among the thin, saline roots of the mangroves that line Mexico’s western coast, the jaguar is the apex predator. Yet despite being at the top of the food chain, its existence is threatened by the abundance of another, much smaller species: the whiteleg shrimp.
Aquaculture of the whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei), or Pacific white shrimp, has boomed on Mexico’s Pacific coast in the past two decades, clearing swaths of mangrove forests and endangering crucial habitats for the jaguar (Panthera onca) in the western states of Sinaloa, Sonora, and Nayarit.
“With shrimp farms in Mexico, you see the destruction of jaguar habitat. But also that of fish, crabs, birds, and other animals. It’s very important to have a supporting habitat with high biodiversity,” Alfredo Quarto, co-founder of Mangroves Action Project, a conservation NGO, told Mongabay.
A jaguar walks at night along the banks of the Santiago River in the mangroves of Nayarit. Image courtesy of Victor Hugo Luja of Jaguars Without Protection.
Habitat loss and poaching have reduced the distribution of jaguars in Mexico by 54%, and today there are between 4,000 and 5,000 of the big cats left in the wild. In Nayarit, a 2022 study of a nearly 6,300-hectare wildlife corridor considered important for jaguar conservation found that mangrove cover in the area had decreased from 35% to 26%, while land used for agriculture and aquaculture had increased from 38% to 50% in 20 years.
Amid habitat loss, a small reserve in Nayarit offers a refuge for jaguars. La Papalota was a 368-hectare farm that in 2008 became the first private area in Nayarit voluntarily dedicated to conservation under a national government program. The reserve is covered in thick mangrove forests to the south, with a mosaic of tropical deciduous forests and secondary forests on the rest of the land.
The area is too small to provide a complete habitat for jaguars, as they need thousands of hectares to maintain a viable population, according to Victor Hugo Luja, a conservation biologist and researcher who studies jaguars at La Papalota. However, the site provides a refuge for at least six jaguars, which frequently use the territory to feed, mate and raise their young. The reserve has also provided a refuge for about a dozen jaguar births, according to Ignacio Vallarta, the landowner.
La Papalota is an example of how small areas of protected land can act as a “stepping stone” between high-priority conservation sites for jaguars, allowing the species to move safely between large reserves. La Papalota lies between the Marismas Nacionales Biosphere Reserve, a 133,854-hectare protected area that is home to about 20% of Mexico’s mangroves, and the San Blas mangroves further south. It lies directly in the corridor that was the focus of the 2022 jaguar study.
The jaguar lives in the mangroves of western Mexico, including in the state of Nayarit. The Gulf of California coast is threatened by the intense expansion of shrimp farming. Image from Google Maps.
There are eight such biological corridors in Mexico’s northern Pacific region, and across the country there are 581 reserves like La Papalota: private lands that have been voluntarily set aside for conservation. According to Luja, this mosaic of voluntary conservation areas, or VCCAs as they are known, covers a combined total of 1.14 million hectares across 28 states and is essential to providing mobility for wildlife such as jaguars and ensuring the viability of their populations.
“Nobody disturbs [La Papalota],” explains Mauricio Cortés Hernández, regional coordinator of Pronatura Noroeste, a conservation NGO that works with mangroves and jaguars. “The owners of La Papalota protect the jaguar, they monitor it, and we support them with cameras. That makes the jaguar survive.”
La Papalota is a 368-hectare reserve rich in mangroves and biodiversity. It is the first private Voluntary Conservation Area in Mexico, created in 2008. Image courtesy of La Papalota.
Outside the reserve, however, the remaining mangroves are threatened by encroaching urban development and shrimp farming, even in protected areas such as the Marismas Nacionales Biosphere Reserve. Mangroves are legally protected in Mexico, but this has not stopped people from clearing them to establish shrimp ponds. Authorities often fail to take action, conservationists told Mongabay.
“Every time we visit the study site we see new farms, new houses, new roads, and the speed of these changes is greater than the capacity of the jaguar populations to resist,” Luja explains to Mongabay. “If the trend continues without any measures being taken, I think that in ten years we might not have jaguar populations in the mangroves of Nayarit.”
The growth of shrimp farming
Mexico is the second largest shrimp producer in Latin America, behind only Ecuador. In 2021, it produced more than 200,000 tons of shrimp, of which 80% was farmed; by 2023, this figure increased to more than 243,000 tons. Between 1993 and 2021, the total surface area of shrimp ponds along the Gulf of California in Mexico increased by more than 1,100%; to more than 114,000 hectares, according to a 2023 study.
“Shrimp farming is a rampant industry that is growing very quickly,” says Quarto. “The value of shrimp is so high that there is competition between countries to export as much as possible. [We have been] fighting this industry for many years.”
Mangroves in Nayarit. Due to the expansion of aquaculture and agriculture, mangrove cover in Nayarit has decreased from 35% to 26% in the last 20 years. Image © Greenpeace/John Novis.
The west coast of Mexico is key for shrimp farming but, according to Luja, more than 40% of shrimp farms do not comply with federal regulations. With 980 shrimp farms in Nayarit alone, this would mean that almost 400 of them do not comply.
“These farms are not sustainable,” says Quarto. “They destroy the very environment that sustains them.”
The sudden rise in shrimp farming over the past decade is linked to cartels, which use the farms for criminal activities such as money laundering, experts say. This complicates regional conservation efforts and endangers environmentalists, who face threats from criminal groups for opposing the expansion of aquaculture.
“There is violence associated with the shrimp farming industry, such as threats to people who protest,” Quarto says. “Local people have little to do in the face of this threat. They often don’t want to speak out for fear of endangering their lives.”
Saving the jaguars
Conservation efforts have largely focused on establishing parks, reserves and protected areas across Mexico. However, experts stress the importance of connecting these areas through biological corridors and safe havens, such as La Papalota, to ensure the jaguars’ long-term survival.
These corridors are increasingly threatened by urban expansion, deforestation and agricultural growth. Environmentalists propose strengthening the protection of these sites, offering landowners financial incentives to preserve biodiversity through payment for ecosystem services. Educating local communities, whose livelihoods are tied to these areas, also promotes coexistence between people and jaguars.
A jaguar walks through the mangroves of the La Papalota reserve. Although the reserve’s territory is too small to sustain a jaguar population, it provides them with a refuge to rest, eat and reproduce. Image courtesy of La Papalota.
“We work with communities to influence their practices,” Luja notes. This includes teaching farmers about livestock protection to prevent retaliatory killings and creating conservation zones for jaguars, while allowing sustainable resource extraction by local communities.
Nonprofits and conservation groups such as the Mangrove Action Project and Pronatura Noroeste continue to advocate for the protection of Mexico’s mangroves and jaguars, calling for stricter regulations on activities that threaten both. Challenges remain, however, as disagreements between national and state authorities over enforcement responsibilities complicate efforts to curb the expansion of shrimp farms.
“There is no coordination between the different levels of authority,” Octavio Aburto Oropeza, a marine ecologist and professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the United States, tells Mongabay. “Municipal, state, and national authorities blame each other. This lack of coordination is one of the main things we need to solve.”
Some environmentalists accuse political authorities of accepting bribes from cartels to turn a blind eye to shrimp farming and its associated criminal activities, highlighting the challenges of tackling illegal aquaculture. In addition, mangrove deforestation is often reported only after it happens, giving authorities an easy way out to claim ignorance about its occurrence, says Aburto Oropeza. To address this, researchers are developing a “mangrove threat index,” which will predict the risks of mangrove loss in advance.
“It will be a radical change,” says Aburto Oropeza. “If these mangroves disappear, we can hold the government accountable because they knew this would happen and did nothing.”
They also place hope in Mexico’s incoming environment secretary, Alicia Bárcena, a biologist who takes office on October 1 and who has pledged to prioritize mangrove protection. Experts see her appointment as a promising step for the conservation of mangroves and, consequently, for the protection of jaguars and other species that depend on these ecosystems.
“[Jaguars] are very adaptable and resilient,” explains Luja. “All we need is to give them the space to continue carrying out their activities.”
Source: es.mongabay
