Sir

I wish to comment on your article about the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Nature 394, 112; 1998). The CITES secretariat is not “one of the United Nations’ most controversial secretariats”, but rather quite the contrary. For 25 years, it has been a model of efficiency and qualified service.

Your statement that “two members of the CITES secretariat in Geneva have been dismissed” is incorrect. The staff in question opted for early retirement, and were offered compensation for their long years of service. The departure of these two professional staff members is highly regretted.

You refer to the role of these two individuals “in awarding permits to organizations that wanted to trade in plants and animals on the CITES list of banned species”. But the CITES secretariat does not grant CITES permits; this is the role of the CITES management authorities of member states. Permits are not granted to “organizations”. Nothing of this sort ever happened in the secretariat, either related to these two staff members or, to my knowledge, to any other member of the secretariat.

The statements in your article have damaged the reputation of two honourable and highly skilled professionals, who have left the secretariat to the regret of all the parties, and who are very much respected by all who have known them. They are also damaging to the CITES parties, and to the United Nations Environment Programme.