Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Once vanishing from view in the dense Atlantic Forest, jaguars are again stalking the undergrowth of Iguaçu National Park in Brazil. Their comeback — numbers have more than doubled in the region since 2010 — is a rare success in the world of large carnivore conservation, reports Mongabay contributor Sarah Brown. The recovery owes much to an unusual alliance of biologists, bureaucrats, border-straddling NGOs and a crochet collective of local women. The jaguar (Panthera onca) population in the Brazil-Argentina Green Corridor, a 185,000-hectare (457,000-acre) stretch of forest, had collapsed by the late 2000s. Habitat loss and retaliatory killings had reduced sightings to almost none. But cross-border collaboration — between Brazil’s Jaguars of Iguaçu Project and Argentina’s Proyecto Yaguareté — has helped the population grow to at least 105 individuals. It may still be isolated from other jaguar populations, but it is now stable and even cautiously expanding. Such progress did not come from enforcement alone. Efforts have ranged from ecological monitoring and rapid-response conflict mitigation to educational programs in local schools and technical support for farmers losing livestock to predation. Crucially, outreach efforts have built trust. Landowners who once reached for rifles now call biologists. A notable innovation is the Jaguar Crocheteers, a women-led artisan group supported by the conservation team. Based in communities bordering the park, they produce jaguar-themed crafts sold to tourists and used in awareness campaigns. For some, the income is…This article was originally published on Mongabay