Pró-Onça Institute The Pró-Onça Institute is dedicated to conserving large carnivores and their prey, empowering women in science, and mitigating climate change in Latin America through community-based solutions for biodiversity conservation and sustainable practices benefiting wildlife and local communities. The organization collaborates with local communities, governments, and other stakeholders to create holistic solutions that address environmental and socio-economic challenges while ensuring conservation efforts benefit all involved. The institute prioritizes protection of natural habitats and endangered species while recognizing that true sustainability lies in empowering communities to become active participants in environmental stewardship.
Project story
Restoring Jaguar Corridors in Brazil's Cerrado
Our Mission
Instituto Pró-Onça protects and restores the ecological corridors that sustain biodiversity, water security, and climate resilience in Brazil's Cerrado. We empower rural women, young people, landowners, and local communities as conservation leaders, creating landscapes where both wildlife and people flourish.
The Landscape Under Threat
Our work focuses on a critical region connecting Cocalzinho de Goiás, Corumbá de Goiás, and Pirenópolis in Central Brazil—a mosaic of ecological corridors, protected areas, native vegetation, rivers, and private lands.
The Cerrado is one of Earth's most biodiverse savannas, supplying water to South America's major river basins. Jaguars, giant anteaters, armadillos, tapirs, and hundreds of bird and plant species call this region home—but time is running out.
The Crisis
Habitat fragmentation from agricultural expansion, devastating wildfires, invasive species, and vegetation degradation are fragmenting the Cerrado at an alarming rate. Wildlife becomes trapped in isolated patches, water sources grow vulnerable, and the ecological processes sustaining the entire landscape collapse.
The solution lies with the people who live here: most remaining Cerrado exists on private and community lands, making local stewardship essential.
Our Solution
We restore ecological corridors reconnecting fragmented habitats. Partnering with rural women, young people, and landowners, we collect native seeds, cultivate seedlings, restore degraded areas, and monitor biodiversity. Women lead this transformation, building environmental knowledge and sustainable livelihoods while healing ecosystems.
Our Impact
Restored 5 hectares of Cerrado habitat
Produced 1,300+ native seedlings
Documented 26 mammal species and 11 individual jaguars
Trained 15 rural women in restoration and stewardship
Engaged 200+ young people in conservation
Your support expands these efforts, strengthens ecological corridors, and empowers communities to build a thriving future for the Cerrado.
Learn more: https://www.proonca.org.br | Instagram: @pro.onca
Project updates
Team
Restoring jaguar corridors in Goiás, Brazil
Pró-Onça Institute The Pró-Onça Institute is dedicated to conserving large carnivores and their prey, empowering women in science, and mitigating climate change in Latin America through community-based solutions for biodiversity conservation and sustainable practices benefiting wildlife and local communities. The organization collaborates with local communities, governments, and other stakeholders to create holistic solutions that address environmental and socio-economic challenges while ensuring conservation efforts benefit all involved. The institute prioritizes protection of natural habitats and endangered species while recognizing that true sustainability lies in empowering communities to become active participants in environmental stewardship.
Project story
Restoring Jaguar Corridors in Brazil's Cerrado
Our Mission
Instituto Pró-Onça protects and restores the ecological corridors that sustain biodiversity, water security, and climate resilience in Brazil's Cerrado. We empower rural women, young people, landowners, and local communities as conservation leaders, creating landscapes where both wildlife and people flourish.
The Landscape Under Threat
Our work focuses on a critical region connecting Cocalzinho de Goiás, Corumbá de Goiás, and Pirenópolis in Central Brazil—a mosaic of ecological corridors, protected areas, native vegetation, rivers, and private lands.
The Cerrado is one of Earth's most biodiverse savannas, supplying water to South America's major river basins. Jaguars, giant anteaters, armadillos, tapirs, and hundreds of bird and plant species call this region home—but time is running out.
The Crisis
Habitat fragmentation from agricultural expansion, devastating wildfires, invasive species, and vegetation degradation are fragmenting the Cerrado at an alarming rate. Wildlife becomes trapped in isolated patches, water sources grow vulnerable, and the ecological processes sustaining the entire landscape collapse.
The solution lies with the people who live here: most remaining Cerrado exists on private and community lands, making local stewardship essential.
Our Solution
We restore ecological corridors reconnecting fragmented habitats. Partnering with rural women, young people, and landowners, we collect native seeds, cultivate seedlings, restore degraded areas, and monitor biodiversity. Women lead this transformation, building environmental knowledge and sustainable livelihoods while healing ecosystems.
Our Impact
Restored 5 hectares of Cerrado habitat
Produced 1,300+ native seedlings
Documented 26 mammal species and 11 individual jaguars
Trained 15 rural women in restoration and stewardship
Engaged 200+ young people in conservation
Your support expands these efforts, strengthens ecological corridors, and empowers communities to build a thriving future for the Cerrado.
Learn more: https://www.proonca.org.br | Instagram: @pro.onca
Project updates
Team
Location
Brazil
Round 3
Jul 1-21, 2026
Supporting community-led nature projects around the world.
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