Volunteer for a startup protecting the "Brazilian Savanna" and its jaguars! 🐆

Pró-Onça Institute empowers Cerrado communities to restore critical habitats, monitor biodiversity, and promote sustainable human-wildlife coexistence.

The Brazilian Cerrado, one of the world's most biodiverse savannas, is vanishing at an alarming rate due to large-scale agriculture. This habitat loss fragments the landscape, isolating large carnivores like jaguars and driving them into dangerous conflicts with local farmers. Furthermore, the rural communities living closest to these ecosystems—particularly women and youth—are often excluded from conservation leadership and lack the resources to protect their land against the intensifying threats of drought and wildfires.

Pró-Onça Institute addresses these crises through a locally driven model that transforms communities into active conservation partners across four integrated pillars. We train rural women and youth in high-tech biodiversity monitoring—using camera traps and GPS to track wildlife and reduce predator conflicts—while establishing community nurseries to restore native vegetation corridors that reconnect fragmented habitats. Through flagship initiatives like "Jaguar Women for Climate & Conservation," we provide the leadership training and employment needed for local women to head restoration efforts, all while using professional storytelling and art to amplify community voices and foster global engagement. By blending ecological science with social empowerment, we create resilient landscapes where both jaguars and people can thrive together.

Role (Volunteer, unpaid): Conservation Data & Spatial Analysis Specialist

Role Description: We are looking for a volunteer with strong skills in ecological data analysis and spatial modeling to support biodiversity research at Pró-Onça Institute.

Our organization works on wildlife conservation, ecosystem restoration, and community-led monitoring in the Brazilian Cerrado. Over the past years, we have collected a growing biodiversity dataset through camera traps, field surveys, and community-based monitoring efforts.

This dataset includes records of threatened species, including jaguars and other medium and large mammals. We are currently working to transform this data into scientific outputs that can contribute to conservation knowledge and decision-making.

We are looking for someone with experience in ecological data analysis who can collaborate with us in analyzing these datasets and supporting the development of scientific publications.

Responsibilities may include:

• Organizing and managing biodiversity datasets
• Conducting statistical and spatial analyses related to species distribution and habitat use
• Supporting ecological modelling such as species distribution models or ecological niche analyses
• Working with spatial data and habitat variables using GIS tools
• Collaborating in the preparation of scientific manuscripts and technical reports Preferred technical skills include:
• R or Python for ecological data analysis
• GIS tools such as QGIS or ArcGIS • experience with spatial ecology or species distribution modelling
• Familiarity with camera trap data or wildlife monitoring datasets

Our immediate goal is to develop scientific publications based on our biodiversity monitoring data, while also generating analyses that can inform conservation strategies in the Cerrado.

This role is ideal for someone interested in conservation science, ecological modeling, and applied biodiversity research.

Time Commitment: Volunteer 4-6 hours per week for 1-2 months remotely 💻

If you want to make change happen, apply to volunteer with Pró-Onça Institute now!