MOUNT SINAI-PANTHERA PANTANAL
HUMAN HEALTH CARE- JAGUAR CONSERVATION PROJECT

PROJECT GOAL

In order to help achieve Panthera’s goal of linking community development with conservation, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Department of Medicine’s Advancing Idealism in Medicine initiative and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s Global Health Center are seeking to improve the health status of Panthera’s Pantanal ranch employees and their families as well as engage and aid others living in the area.

BACKGROUND

Overview of Panthera in Brazil

Panthera is a Wildlife Conservation non-governmental organization that has launched a jaguar conservation program in the Brazilian Pantanal. The goal of the program is to work in close collaboration with local populations to develop a model for sustainable cattle ranching that also serves to maintain the jaguar population. To promote community “buy in”, the organization is also working on community development via the provision of necessities such as education and health care. Ideally, this model will demonstrate to the local population that jaguars and their habitats can be preserved while also promoting improved and sustainable ranching practices.

Geography

The Pantanal, a region of Brazil located in the western states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grass du Sul, is the world’s largest contiguous wetlands. It is twenty times the size of the United States Everglades, covering 210,000 km2. In the Pantanal, there are few people, no towns or villages, and travel in the area is restricted to small airplanes and boats. The vast majority of the land, nearly 99%, is privately owned by agricultural and cattle concerns. There are two distinct seasons. During the wet season, from November to March, the rivers overflow their banks and much of the low lying Pantanal is flooded. In the dry season the water recedes, marshes dry, and much of the Pantanal becomes a savanna. The Pantanal is also remarkably rich in terms of flora and fauna, which is a draw for tourists.

Panthera’s ranch land holdings are located on the Fazendas (farms) of Sao Bento and Porto Joffre. Sao Bento is more than 27000 hectares in size and is located in the state of Mato Grasso de Sul on the border with Mato Grasso and the Rio Cuiaba. The Transpanteneira, the only road into the region, begins in the town of Pocone about 40 km south of the nearest city of Cuiaba and runs south 145 km to the outpost of Porto Joffre. The Sao Bento Fazenda is approximately a 20 minute speedboat ride from the end of the road. It is also accessible by small plane, which land at the small airstrip on the property. Within a 5-hour boat ride of the Sao Bento ranch there are an estimated 20-30 other cattle ranches of various size.

Local population

The ranch has hired approximately 30 employees, most of whom are cowboys who tend to the ranch’s cattle. Their ages range from 18 to 57, but a majority are in their twenties or thirties. Although almost all are married and have children, only two ranch hands live on the fazenda with their spouses and children. The other families live in town due to lack of education and health care options on the property. In addition to the ranch employees, there are also a small number of people living independently along the river or employed by nearby businesses who were interviewed and who would also be “stakeholders” in this project. In the future, employers and employees of other fazendas should be engaged as well.

MOUNT SINAI GHC’s ROLE

The Mount Sinai GHC would propose to be involved in:

• Identifying and stocking the appropriate supplies
• Education and oversight of the primary care and “acute care” provider
• Telemedicine back up
• Evaluation of health care initiative on the Fazenda and in the community via
  • Qualitative assessment of satisfaction with care
  • Monitoring of selected target medical outcomes
  • Evaluation of the primary care and acute care provider knowledge, job satisfaction, and performance
• Evaluation of public health education programs for target population

Future directions, once a stable provider relationships has been established with the community could include investigation of environmental health issues (such as assessing the burden of pesticides or heavy metal (mercury) in the environment)

For more information about the Panthera Pantanal Project, please contact Dr. Sigrid Hahn, sigrid.hahn@mssme.edu