The report also identified the presence of offers for jaguar parts on digital platforms, which, although not in massive volumes, does represent a clear sign that there is an internal market.
“Here we see that there are also trade nodes and it seems to be national demand,” said Sandra Petrone in this regard.
These are some posts of jaguar parts sold on Facebook.
(Photos: Screenshot.)
To confront this trend, Profepa recently launched a mechanism so that any user can report publications that offer wildlife. Although the tool is new, organizations see it as an advance.
Thus, starting in June, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (Profepa) disseminated a guide aimed at citizens to identify and report the illegal sale of wildlife – whether live specimens, parts or derivatives – that circulates on social networks and digital commerce platforms.
According to the agency, wildlife trafficking found fertile ground in these virtual spaces due to the anonymity they offer, which complicates the tracking of those responsible and facilitates illicit transactions without supervision.
“Citizens are our main ally in this fight,” the institution highlighted when presenting the guide.
The document explains the main signs to detect suspicious publications, as well as the steps to make a report when content that promotes the illegal trade of species is identified. Profepa stressed that these notices are used to manage the deletion of accounts, in coordination with Meta and other platforms.
However, when the public has more detailed information, such as addresses, names of alleged sellers or data that allows their location, the authority urged them to file a formal complaint through the official Profepa portal or by email [email protected].
Uses and customs: a practice that needs to be transformed
Another component of the illegal trade, which the report also highlights, is the use of jaguar parts in traditional ceremonies or community practices. These customs have deep historical roots.
“For hundreds of years they have used parts of the jaguar in ceremonies, but this must change,” says Sandra Petrone in this regard.
The report confirmed that, in some regions, jaguar parts have ritual uses, even among groups with a strong cultural identity. Mexico appears as one of the countries with the greatest presence of these records in the global analysis of literature – only below Brazil.
The WWF warned that these practices must be transformed, not through abrupt prohibitions, but through support processes, more sustainable livestock farming schemes and compensation mechanisms, including the Livestock Insurance Fund.
Although Mexico has led key meetings within the CITES framework and shown strong political commitment, there are still major pending issues:
– Strengthen digital surveillance against commerce on social networks.
– Increase resources to address the human-jaguar conflict, currently focused on a few states.
– Invest in biological corridors, since habitat fragmentation is a growing threat.
– Integrate long-term public policies to ensure sustainable coexistence.
Sandra Petrone also pointed out that WWF works together with Semarnat and Conanp in a project financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) that, for five years, will work in four priority landscapes in the north of the country, the Central Pacific and the Mayan Forest, with the aim of creating conditions for coexistence in territories where protected areas, biological corridors, rural communities and productive activities interact.
Petrone highlighted that the choice of the jaguar as a symbol for the 2026 World Cup also reminds us that this feline, revered for millennia in Latin America, is more than a cultural emblem: it is an opportunity to make visible the urgency of its conservation.
He also celebrated that his presence at a global event can help raise awareness among new audiences about the importance of protecting their habitat and stopping illegal trade that threatens the species.
As an umbrella species – whose protection helps conserve other species and their habitat, as they require large areas of territory to survive – conserving the jaguar means protecting jungles, rivers and dozens of organisms that depend on these ecosystems.
He commented that Mexico is today at a decisive point: transform this visibility into forceful actions or allow opportunistic hunting to continue weakening one of the most emblematic animals on the continent and whose future depends on the joint will of the authorities, communities and society.
