Sir

In reply to my Commentary1 on the need for open science as the basis for decisions on conservation, Anne Meylan2 muddles up several different issues about hawksbill turtles, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Cuba.

One issue is that it is now close to 18 months since the hawksbill was listed as critically endangered, but documentation has still not been provided. Meylan indicates that because those making the recommendation were specialists there is no need to question it. This appeal to authority, combined with the excuse that her working group are volunteers, will do little to increase confidence that IUCN is achieving the transparency and professionalism that is meant to underlie its categorizations of the status of species. Sanctioning publication of conclusions so far in advance of the supporting analyses is not a standard scientific practice. Meylan claims that data are already available, especially in the Groombridge and Luxmoore report3. She fails to mention that those authors suggested that the hawksbill's status could be “indeterminate” rather than “endangered”.

A different issue is whether trade in wildlife can be beneficial sometimes. In the case of hawksbills, no fewer will be killed as a result of decisions made at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) because the Cubans are already taking hawksbills for meat. What the CITES decision means is that the shells from turtles that are already being killed to feed impoverished people will go largely to waste instead of generating support for improved enforcement, monitoring, research, and reduction of incidental catch.

If limited trade is sanctioned under CITES, it actually provides more leverage because it is accompanied by international scrutiny through inspections and reports. Outside CITES, Cuba can do what it wishes with turtles in its waters. The possibility of regulated trade under CITES has already stimulated Cuba to devise an enforcement tool that sets new standards: every piece of hawksbill shell in the Cuban stockpile was videoed and numbered.