Jeremy is on the right track here. I don't care what the locals currently think about chameleons, their focus is indeed on survival. If chameleons become a part of said survival they will be valued and conserved. The locals are not stupid barbarian heathens incapable of logic or thought. This mentality is incorrect and outdated.
If you want to save chameleons build them into the economy. If you want to disallow all exports and simply curate the natural habitat for posterity it will get strip farmed and hunted out. This is reality. Conservation in poor countries must have an economic upside to be successful.
As far as breeding multiple generations F5 plus we as a group need to decide to breed for survival traits as well as heavily cull and or not breed any less than perfect specimens. This along with limited wild stock could allow for long term success.
I also think the entire system is flawed. I would like to see importation regulated more thoroughly. There is NO reason any wild caught animal should go to an inexperienced person or one who isn't planning to breed.
If a breeders license / permit was required to purchase wild caught and a better quality was demanded for import this would do several things: wild caught value would increase, increasing the quality and capture techniques because fewer healthy quality animals would be exported.
Those who have a permit would be able to demand a premium price and make the endeavor more worthwhile.
At present the export rewards quantities of any garbage animal rather than well cared for healthy animals.
I am going to take issue with much of your post, and similar posts, in this thread. To begin with, the chameleon populations in the wilds of Madagascar are not under threat. Since the quota system went into effect, even with some excesses, most species are doing quite well. CITES recently approved for Madagascar to add several chameleon species to be available for limited export.
The second issue is all these notions about improving the quality of export/ import, and some idea of a $500 license. Just to import CITES critters, one must maintain a $100 per year license from USF&W, and then a similar $100 per year in-state license, at least in Florida. For any shipment brought in from such as Madagascar, I am going to pay USF&W a minimum of $270 additional just to inspect it, hundreds of dollars in other paperwork fees, varying based on what countries I go through (no direct flights to America from Madagascar), as well as various broker's fees in those cities/countries it transits, as well as the air freight.
I am going to have over $1000 into any shipment before I pay for a single animal. That puts a strong motivation on me to do all that I can to not get animals that are on death's doorstep on arrival.
Currently, the problem is not with importers wanting, and paying for, quality. Its still with exporters who have other customers waiting for the panthers if you should drop them. I've had exporters send garbage because they didn't care if I ordered from them the following season, as they had folks in Asia willing to buy their junk. I have exporters now with whom I have bonus arrangements, where I not only pay the asking price, but if they send me animals that I deem exceptional, I then send them a $25 per head bonus after arrival.
Quality is all about maintaining a competitive marketplace at every level, and then being able to build an exporter/importer relationship within that framework. The more such is restricted to a smaller number of players, the worse it will get, not better.
As to who gets the imports ? Supply and demand needs to rule. Incompetent folks who get into the market will be Darwin'd out. The profit margin on flipping WC's is quite small, btw.
As for F-generations, one only needs access to new bloodlines. In-breeding 2nd cousins or closer will doom a bloodline with chameleons. I have bloodlines here that reach back 12 years, but whether it be via CB, or WC, one still needs access to a large gene pool to sustain any chameleon species.
