Sir

The summits of the neotropical Guayana Highlands in Venezuela have a unique biodiversity that is under serious threat because of habitat loss resulting from climate warming. Although conservation studies are urgently needed, these are blocked by official bodies that will not grant permits for fieldwork in the region.

The bureaucratic process starts with the Venezuelan government's agency for science and technology, FONACIT, and involves a network of different organizations controlled by the ministry of the environment. These include the national tepui (table-mountain) commission, the biodiversity office, the office of indigenous affairs and the national institute of parks.

We have been involved since July 2005 in an international conservation project, funded by the Spanish BBVA Foundation, on the Guayana Highlands flora, in collaboration with several Venezuelan universities, research institutes and other organizations. It took us two years to obtain permits from FONACIT and for sample collection to be authorized. For unspecified reasons, the permits do not allow genetic studies, so molecular phylogenetic analysis is impossible. We are still trying to obtain approval from the office of indigenous affairs, but the people are reluctant to comply: they consider themselves owners of the summits, which are sacred lands to them.

The lengthy bureaucratic procedures have prevented scientific fieldwork in the Guayana Highlands for almost twenty years, when permissions to visit the summits for any purpose were suspended to avoid human disturbance and biopiracy (see below, 'Biopiracy: conservationists have to rebuild lost trust' Nature 453, 26; 2008). It is to be hoped that the situation may be reversed before it is too late to undertake suitable conservation strategies.