Advances and barriers to the development of jaguar-tourism in the Brazilian Pantanal

•Jaguar tourism contributes to economic and ecological sustainability of Pantanal.•The Pantanal is the only brazilian biome that has policies for wildlife tourism.•Government supervision applying tourism laws on Pantanal are limited.•The tourism basically is self regulated by the guides and tourism operators.•Pantanal has the potential to be an example to wildlife tourism development. Wildlife tourism has grown in recent years and in many countries represents a major economic activity. The observation of wildlife in Brazil, despite its great biodiversity potential, is underexploited. Here we discuss the importance of jaguar-tourism as an economic and ecological activity, contributing to the jaguar conservation in the Pantanal, a region with abundant fauna and recognized as an important ecotourism destination in Brazil. We argue that the absence of management plans for protected areas in the Pantanal are impeding the development of this activity.