Zoo Conservation Outreach Group

Zoo Conservation Outreach Group (ZCOG) is proud to announce Ricardo Moreno of Fundación Yaguará Panamá as the 2022 recipient of ZCOG’s Ron Magill Conservation Heroes Award (RMCHA).

Ricardo is the co-founder, President, and Principal Researcher of Fundación Yaguará Panamá, a nonprofit organization that promotes the conservation and recovery of big cats in Panama. Throughout the Panamanian countryside, Ricardo and his colleagues at Fundación Yaguará are using scientific research, education and outreach, and public awareness programs to help protect jaguars and their habitat. Specifically, the team is working with private landowners and ranchers to implement predation prevention measures to decrease human – jaguar conflict, and conducting Panama’s first national jaguar census, a key component of the Panamanian government’s National Action Plan for Jaguar Conservation.

Ricardo’s tireless advocacy for jaguar conservation in Panama has earned him a Ford Prize and National Geographic Society Emerging Explorer honors, and marked him as a true conservation hero!

Funds awarded from the 2022 RMCHA helped purchase camera traps for use by Fundación Yaguará in the national jaguar census. Funds secured from ZCOG Board member matching pledges will be used to purchase additional equipment, materials, and services required by Ricardo and Fundación Yaguará for the census. Please us the link below if you would like to donate to this effort:
https://bit.ly/ZCOG_Jaguar

The Ron Magill Conservation Heroes Award recognizes outstanding contributions to wildlife conservation in Latin America and the Caribbean Basin by supporting professional capacity building and project development. The award provides Latin American and Caribbean conservationists with opportunities to fulfill their conservation potential by funding capacity building—in the form of professional training—and project development assistance—in the form of field equipment purchases or data collection and monitoring services. In doing so, the award bridges ZCOG’s dual missions of promoting capacity building through professional development opportunities and providing direct support for wildlife and habitat conservation in the Americas.

Our sincere thanks to Ron Magill, the Ron Magill Conservation Endowment and the Zoo Miami Foundation for partnering with ZCOG on this important conservation award!