by Rod Hughes

Jaguar Cars and its parent company, Ford Motors, are donating $35,000 for environment projects in the Central American region. Jaguar is interested in the survival of the big cat after which the car is named and is offering $15,000 for projects to protect that endangered species. Only 50% of the graceful animals remain on the continent because of poaching and destruction of their environment in the past few years.

The Jaguar donation is aimed at Guetemala, Belize and Costa Rica where the big cats are endangered by illegal hunters after their beautiful pelts and by poaching of the wild pigs that constitute the jaguar’s prinicpal food. The vast majority of Costa Rica’s big cats live on the Osa Peninsula that sticks out into the Pacific Ocean from the country’s southern coast.

The Ford conservation prize of $20,000 is more general regarding environmental issues. Candidates must be registered by Nov. 30 at www.fondoja… or www.premios…