Now, fourteen months later, the inhabitants of Lachitxila Asuncion who had earlier ceremoniously received the animal from a helicopter, have given him his freedom by releasing him into the Chinantla jungle.

And so it is that poverty and the lack of options are the principle causes of ecological and cultural deterioration. One of the reasons for this is the absence of markets for local agricultural products: coffee, cocoa, vanilla, cinnamon, chili, corn, beans, amongst other products…which has caused the villages of the Sierra Juarez to substitute age old rural cultural traditions for effectively inadequate alternatives like ranching.

The influx of livestock into the jungle has created a significant conflict between the ranchers and the jaguars. With the latter losing their habitat, they have been attacking and killing livestock.

What has happened, explained Fernando Guadarrama, a member of the civic association “Pueblo Jaguar”, is the result of a series of events that started in 1997, when the government imposed a micro-regional development recommendation and awarded the first thumbs-up towards extensive ranching. A year later, in 1998, the price of coffee dropped, and so began the abandonment of farming and emigration. Then in 1999 the Regional Fund of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples was developed, with more loans being authorized so as to promote ranching as a viable alternative within the context of the coffee crisis.

Next in 2000, The Indigenous Zapoteco Association of the Sierra Norte was born, formed by Lachixila Asuncion and its four adjoining territories. With an already existing major crisis in coffee growing, and lacking other options, those who returned to their communities invested their money in the purchase of cattle, exacerbating the socio-environmental problem.

The crisis began to receive attention towards the end of 2003, when with the support of the Communal Foundation of Oaxaca and the Union of Organizations of the Sierra Juarez, a diagnostic workshop was created to identify an initial plan for integrated development: the prioritization of projects to slow down the progression of ranching and search for alternatives to it, beginning with the following: marketing of dried chili, idea exchange and training in the production and marketing of twine, the same with regard to concentrated livestock breeding, making improvements to the cultivation of corn and beans; as well as other projects deemed to be worthwhile such as resuscitating the “coffee-culture”, fish ponds, agri-forestry nurseries and ornamental plant production.

In seeking an integrated solution to the social and economic problems which have resulted in the destruction of the jungle and placing the continued existence of these big cats at risk, thanks to the actions and demands of Francisco Toledo there followed an answer. In the last year Oaxaca partook in the National Program for the Preservation of the Jaguar, organized by the National Commission for the Protection of Natural Regions and the Committee for Priority Species, after which Alberto Cárdenas, Secretary of the Environment declared in Nayarit that 2005 was the Year of the Jaguar.

Therefore in accordance with Official Mexican Regulation No. 59 and the stipulated protocol of the Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources respecting wildlife management, the jaguar as a species designated in danger of extinction in the tropical forests was returned to the jungle with a geo-positional collar for tracking its location and learning its behavioral patterns by satellite.

Francisco Reyes Cervante, representative of the Federal Ministry for the Protection of the Environment, says that the disappearance of the jaguar creates a complete imbalance and so it’s an unprecedented world achievement to return an animal of this species to the Oaxacan jungle.

“Having a jaguar in the jungle is indicative of a healthy jungle. The existence therein of other mammals is a sign that the Jaguar of Light lives on.”