Engage Students in Education Reform—Response

COMMENTARY Facing up to vexing problems A nod to nodules LETTERS I BOOKS I POLICY FORUM I EDUCATION FORUM I PERSPECTIVES LETTERS edited by Jennifer Sills A. REGALADO’S NEWS FOCUS STORY “BRAZILIAN SCIENCE: RIDING A GUSHER” (3 DECEMBER 2010, p. 1306) rightly highlights the “dearth of Brazilian-led science” in the Amazon and the “very delicate question” of Brazil’s dependence on foreign knowledge production. However, based on my experience and publication statistics from the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere experiment in Amazonia (1), I would challenge the statement that the “majority of publications on the Amazon don’t have a Brazilian author.” In fact, many papers have Brazilian co-authors. Brazilians (and Amazonian researchers) are involved in the majority of Amazonian research projects, but often in a subsidiary role as data providers and ﬁ eld workers rather than leading the research and developing the scientiﬁ c arguments. Clearly, foreign researchers, resources, technology, and expertise have been instru- mental in developing Amazonian science and raising Brazilian capacity in this biologically unique and important part of world. However, Brazilian researchers need to stop gratefully receiving ﬁ sh and quickly learn how to use the rod and the line. ANA C. M. MALHADO Laboratory of Analysis and Processing of Imaging Satellites, LAPIS, Federal University of Alagoas, Maceio, Alagoas, Brazil. E-mail: anaclaudiamalhado@gmail.com Reference Research in Brazil. Many Amazon projects are led by foreign researchers. CREDIT: DEVA RODRIGUES/EMBRAPA Boosting CITES Through Research IN THEIR POLICY FORUM “BOOSTING CITES” (24 December 2010, p. 1752), J. Phelps et al. propose improvements to the implementation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). Most of their recommendations would involve the negotiation of cross-Party agreements and procurement of additional ﬁ nancial resources, both of which are likely to delay or prevent their implementation. We suggest a more straightforward improve- ment to CITES implementation: Scientists should consider choosing CITES-listed taxa as model taxa for their research. At a workshop in 2008, more than 100 1. Ministerio de Ciencia e Tecnologia, Programa de Grande Escala da Biosfera-Atmosfera na Amazonia (http://lba.inpa.gov.br/lba/) [in Portuguese]. scientists and regulators compiled 60 case studies covering a wide range of CITES- listed taxa. The group outlined how infor- mation on the biology, harvesting, and man- agement could be used to determine whether international trade in CITES-listed taxa is detrimental to their survival in the wild. Most of those case studies (78%) mentioned that more basic information on the biology of the taxa in the wild (including taxonomy, biology, and ecology) would improve their ability to make this determination (1). A lot of scientiﬁ c research is done on spe- cies that are chosen out of convenience. We recommend that, all else being equal, sci- entists coordinate with national scientific authorities, local communities, and com- mercial traders to work on CITES-listed taxa instead. Such research could directly address www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 331 Published by AAAS Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on August 8, 2014 Amazon Science Needs Brazilian Leadership sustainable exploitation practices or could simply aim to generate relevant information as a by-product (for example, by generat- ing additional information on the basic tax- onomy, biology, and ecology of taxa). Either way, those implementing CITES would ben- eﬁ t from the additional information and sci- entists would achieve additional impact from their research. MATTHEW J. SMITH,* RICHARD J. WILLIAMS, DREW W. PURVES Computational Science Laboratory, Microsoft Research, 7 J J Thompson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 0FB, UK. *To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Matthew.Smith@microsoft.com Reference 1. M. J. Smith et al., Biol. Conserv. 144, 82 (2011). Response WE AGREE WITH SMITH ET AL. THAT BASIC BIO- logical information is the cornerstone of CITES effectiveness and sustainable resource management, and that scientists should be encouraged to select CITES-listed species as research taxa. However, many of the most important and delicate issues for CITES go far beyond biology of species under threat. Biological data provide a critical, lowest common denominator for CITES decision- making, but strengthening CITES funding, checks and balances, analyses, and accompa- nying human institutions and capacities are equally critical to conservation. Smith et al. suggest that collecting biologi- cal research would be a more straightforward approach to improving CITES implementa- tion than our solutions, many of which would require substantial ﬁ nancial support and polit- ical will. In fact, even issues of basic biologi- cal research on vulnerable species are about Party funding, negotiations, safeguards, and collaboration. Bridging the logistical, ﬁ nan- cial, political, and permit-laden gulf to attract signiﬁ cantly more researchers to study these vulnerable species is not a simple process. For example, obtaining research per- mits for work on CITES-listed or locally threatened (e.g., Red List) species is time- 18 FEBRUARY 2011