Comment: Behind the wheel of social change

June 3, p. 28

Departing Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) chief, Frances Seymour, first came to Indonesia in 1987 for her dream job.As with many other young intellectuals in Washington, DC, she was fascinated with the newly found global awareness of tropical forests and biodiversity in the late-1980s.

Your comments:

I have followed CIFOR’s work closely over the past years and I must say that during Seymour’s tenure, the quality of science of this once highly respected research center has declined significantly.

The reason might be that Seymour’s academic background is not related to forestry and she lacks academic credentials that would be required to be successful in this
position.

Seymour proudly refers to her “no-surprise policy”. In fact, this has led to “well-balanced” research results that contain only limited scientific value. I hope that her successor can revitalize CIFOR’s international scientific program.
Tom Smith