Sir

Pleased though we were to read the generous and thorough review of our book Ethnoflora of the Soqotra Archipelago in Nature (“Back to the roots” Nature 432, 805–806; 2004), we feel that — given the politically sensitive environment in which we work — we need to address the comment that “many ethical issues ... are not generally considered in this book”.

We were scrupulous, for example, about informing all those who contributed to our book about their intellectual property rights. This was in strict compliance with the Convention on Biological Diversity (and with our contract). All informants recorded on tape, in Soqotri, their agreement and their understanding of the purpose of the research.

Regarding the recognition of intellectual contribution, our book includes a list of some 140 Soqotran contributors. (Female informants could not be named individually for cultural reasons.) And although Ethnoflora did not specifically mention any of the educational and capacity-building programmes in the archipelago in which we are involved, these activities are fully reported elsewhere.