Jaguar Legacy Fund GP Inc. had made an early, small-scale investment in Quadriz’ work by purchasing high-quality carbon offsets from the REDD+ carbon project Corazón Verde del Chaco (VCS 2611). On 26 June 2023, the VCUs were retired by the Verra Registry on behalf of the company with retirement data made publicly available. Jaguar Legacy Fund GP Inc (“JLF”) is an operating company providing services for a Fund that invests in conservation-positive and climate-smart businesses that improve stewardship of nature, biodiversity and carbon assets in Latin America.
The early investment was earmarked to directly support the costs of purchasing and installation of high-definition, motion-sensitive camera traps. These cameras are used to track the resident jaguar and other wildlife populations as part of the project’s biodiversity monitoring programme led by conservation experts, including Quadriz’ own biologist. The Jaguar Legacy Fund’s carbon offset investment also supported the development of Standard Operating Procedures (“SOPs”) for monitoring and training to operate, rotate and maintain the cameras in the Chaco environment.
The Jaguar Legacy Fund is setting up the Jaguar Corridor Investment Fund to make investments that directly and indirectly provide incentives for businesses and communities to protect habitat, including for jaguars and prey, in landscapes and ecosystems in biodiverse regions, such as the Chaco, Amazon, Selva Maya and the critical biological corridors that connect them. It will invest in both mature and emerging conservation markets to protect and restore wildlife corridors and biodiversity in and around the jaguar corridor through Latin America, with an attractive and robust investment pipeline ranging from Mexico to Argentina.
Jaguars have existed on Earth for more than 2 million years, and have been present in Latin America for at least a million years before humans. To thrive, jaguars must travel through diverse landscapes like the Paraguayan Chaco to find both mating partners and prey. As an apex predator, the jaguars are critical to the survival of the ecosystem.
The Corazón Verde del Chaco Project is validated and registered under Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards (CCB), and has additionally achieved the coveted CCB Gold Level Distinction due to the Project’s exceptional biodiversity benefits. The unique biodiversity of the project area has been determined through a 10-month biodiversity monitoring study with motion-sensitive camera traps, installed by Quadriz and FACEN of the University of Asunción.
The monitoring study carried out by Quadriz and FACEN confirmed the project area as a biodiversity hotspot with a presence of, and range for, threatened and vulnerable species, among them the giant armadillo, lowland tapir, giant anteater, and not least the locally-endangered jaguar. The data from their biodiversity monitoring work provides valuable insight to support direct conservation action in the area and maintain and restore the wildlife of the Paraguayan Chaco.
In late 2022, Quadriz and Jaguar Legacy Fund also signed a letter of intent (LOI) to explore and maximize potential joint opportunities to directly support, protect and restore jaguar habitats and native forest. The intended partnership between Quadriz and the Jaguar Legacy Fund will enable each organization to mutually further their aims of protecting ancient forest, and conservation of threatened jaguar populations. The collaboration is intended to help both parties in the identification and selection of native forest properties under immediate threat of deforestation in the jaguar corridor in Paraguay.
The partnership also entails the sale and purchase of high-quality Verified Carbon Units (VCU) that are generated by the projects in the Paraguayan Chaco. The preservation of the jaguar habitat also protects and keeps the Chaco’s rich carbon sinks intact, locking planet-heating greenhouse gases in the ground. It is hoped that through the collaboration forged with the signing of the LOI, Quadriz and the Jaguar Legacy Fund can mobilise greater awareness and action to protect the Paraguayan Chaco and the jaguars, with climate finance mechanisms.
