Summary-

The commercial use of crocodile skins begins by the middle of last century, growing notably towards the beginning of the present century. The activity was extractive from the beginning, dramatically diminishing the number of crocodiles worldwide, with records of repeated situations of local extinction, what caused in the fifties the first attempts of trade regulation and protection of the species. In 1973 the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is signed in Washington D.C., to which 118 countries, Argentina among them, have adhered until now. CITES has classified threatened species in Appendixes or Categories: Appendix I (species in a more delicate situation), prohibits the commercialization of all product that does not come from a properly authorized farming operation; Appendix II on the other hand, allows to commercialize products coming from the wild, provided that this does not affect the survival of the species. The 23 species of crocodiles in the world are included either in Appendix I or in II, which means that the commercialization of the product is severely controlled worldwide.

'Broad Snouted Cayman' (Caiman latirostris), is one of the two argentinean caymans and their population condition, at least some years ago, was considered endangered, partly due to the commercial over-exploitation of the past decades and to the progressive loss of habitat caused by droughts of the swamps aimed to cattle production.

At present, management programs of crocodiles are working out, which has allowed the recovery of populations that were decimated, invalidating the apocalyptic predictions on the future of such species of 20 years ago. In such a sense, we can mention the transfer of Alligator mississippiensis from Appendix I to II in 1979 and Crocodylus porosus in 1985, and the transfer of some populations of Crocodylus niloticus to Appendix II, under resolution 3.15 of the Convention, a situation that is now taking place in the Province of Santa Fe with the population of Cayman latirostris.

THE PROGRAM IN SANTA FE

Although the first works with caymans go back to 1983, the experimental Ranching program in Santa Fe, or Cayman Project (Proyecto Yacaré), began in 1990 with the aim of checking the technique adaptability in our species as well as in the environmental and sociocultural conditions of the Espinal bio-region.

The work began in Santa Fe beginning with the harvest of 10 nests in San Cristóbal Department and starting from a constant increment, only in the last year 100 nests (3.800 eggs) were identified with more than 15.000 hatching since the work began. The increase in the quantity of work places and harvested nests have been accompanied by a verified expansion of the area of current distribution of C. latirostris and for a significant increase of the population density in the monitoring places.

The original project was presented in the 10th Working Meeting of the CSG in Gainesville (1990); the first report on the progress accomplished was presented in the First Regional Meeting of the CSG in Colombia (1991), the second one in the 11th Working Meeting of the CSG in Zimbabwe (1992), and the conclusion of the first 4 years of work in the 12th Working Meeting of the CSG in Thailand (1994). In the 9th Parties Assembly (CITES 1994), in Fort Lauderdale, FL (USA), a summary of everything done from the beginning of the project was presented and subjected to consideration of the Steering Committe of the CSG; the final report of the project was presented in the 13th Working Meeting of the CSG in Santa Fe (1996), and in the 10th General Assembly of the Parties (CITES), in Zimbabwe, the transfer of Caiman latirostris from Appendix I to II was approved, under the Ranching resolution, which enables Argentina to exploits her caymans commercially.


MUPCN'S SANTAFESINIAN CAYMANS

'Yacarés Santafesinos de MUPCN' (Santafesinian Caymans of MUPCN) is the fairy name for the products generated by a program of Sustainable Use of Wild Fauna, approved by international organizations like CITES and the World Union for Conservation. It, known as Cayman Project (Proyecto Yacaré), is aimed to the economic appraisement of the santafesinian wetlands, starting from the conservation and management of cayman population, being developed in the MAGIC/MUPCN AGREEMENT (Law 11820) framework.

When these works began ten years ago, the santafesinian cayman was considered in danger of extinction, and little was known of its distribution and status in the region. Today, the santafesinian population is the best well-known of the species in all its wide area of distribution, more than 10.000 youngs has been returned to nature as a result of the re-population program; and re-categorization as CITES II was obtained, which allows the conservationist commercial best use of the species, by means of the ranching technique, which means that their hunting is not allowed, and no individual (exept the Proyecto Yacare team), can harvest eggs in the wild. Nowadays, meat from the program is offered in restaurants of Santa Fe city and its outskirts, accompanied by the brochure of the trademark, explaining the advantages of the Sustainable Use. On the other hand, products manufactured from the santafesinian program can be found in fine shoe stores in Buenos Aires, also accompanied by the educational material. Finally, the exportation of finished skins to Europe, began recently.

'Yacarés Santafesinos de MUPCN' (Santafesinian Caymans of MUPCN), is the result of ten years of uninterrupted work, and the beginning of a new stage in which the economic appraisement of wetlands begins to come true, acting as clear economic incentive for the conservation of lands often considered unproductive.