Caiman Ecological Refuge, home of Onçafari Jaguar Project. “Onça” means “jaguar” in Portuguese. Onçafari was founded by Mario Haberfeld, a Formula 1 race car driver. Mario spent years visiting wild areas around the world and realized that ecotourism was responsible for saving big mammals in the wild. He thought that people needed to see jaguars for ecotourism to work in Brazil, and thus started Onçafari.
“The Onçafari Association was established to promote the conservation of the environment and to contribute to the socioeconomic development of the regions in which it operates, through ecotourism and scientific studies. We work to preserve biodiversity within several Brazilian biomes, with emphasis on jaguars and maned wolves.”—Onçafari.org