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Correspondence

Nature 404, 541 (6 April 2000) | doi:10.1038/35007238

Assessment mismatches must be sorted out: they leave species at risk

Craig Hilton-Taylor1, Georgina M. Mace2, David R. Capper3, Nigel J. Collar3, Simon N. Stuart4, Colin J. Bibby3, Caroline Pollock1 & Jørgen B. Thomsen5

  1. IUCN/SSC UK Office, 219c Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0DL, UK
  2. Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London NW1 4RY, UK
  3. BirdLife International, Wellbrook Court, Girton Road, Cambridge CB3 0NA , UK
  4. IUCN/SSC, Rue Mauverney 28, Gland CH-1196, Switzerland
  5. Conservation International, 2501 M Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20037 , USA

Although Rodríguez et al. are correct that nationally endemic taxa should be classified identically on national and global Red Lists1, they provide no evidence to support their inferences that national Red Lists "are more accurate" than global Red Lists, or that global lists ignore a "wealth of local data". Moreover, we see certain problems with the national Red Lists they analyse which suggest these inferences may be mistaken.