Preliminary report for the mangement system of yacare caiman in the Pantanal: a proposal for future research and the developmenmt of a monitoring system for wild population subjected to nest harvests.

Since the 1990 legal exploitation of natural populations of yacare caiman (Caiman crocodilus yacare) has been permitted in ranching system where eggs are collected in the wild and subsequent hatchlings are raised in captivity for commercial purposes. We present an analysis of the yacare caiman management system in the Pantanal and suggest strategies to improve its efficiency so as to ensure that the main conservation goals are reached. We present also a proposal of a research project aiming at the development of a feasible monitoring system to be applied to the Pantanal conditions, in order to evaluate the effects of nest harvesting on yacare caiman population dynamics