Postdocs in France need less red tape, more cash

correspondence Masai Mara tourism reveals partnership benefits Wise use of income could satisfy local communities while aiding conservation efforts. Sir — As government budgets for conservation in protected areas decline, there is increasing need for other mechanisms to fund conservation efforts: for example, private-sector involvement. Tourism has long been viewed as a potentially benign source of funding for protected areas, but relatively few sites worldwide have so far been able to generate significant resources. Even where they have, sustainable conservation will result only if the revenues generated are properly managed and allocated. A case in point is the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, world famous for its huge density and diversity of wildlife and an annual migration of more than a million wildebeest. Visitor entrance fees alone could generate $US5.5 million annually for conservation and surrounding community development. This equates to earnings of over $3,500 per square kilometre, some 12 times more than the estimated requirement for effective management1. To date, little revenue has been collected by the local councils overseeing the reserve, and very little has been reinvested. This all appears set to change as the Trans Mara County Council has just contracted the Mara Conservancy, a Kenya-based private consortium, to manage its portion of the reserve, including ticketing, revenue collection, tourism management, security and wildlife conservation. In its first few weeks of operation in June and July, the Mara Conservancy generated more than five times the amount previously collected by the council over a whole year, as well as attracting additional donor funding2. Already new security and management equipment has been purchased and staff are being paid on time. Such a dramatic turnaround bodes well for a reserve that has suffered from uncontrolled and unmanaged tourism impact, and which has witnessed considerable declines in many of its wildlife species3. Moreover, this example could have far-reaching consequences for both wildlife and local Maasai communities. Much of the Masai Mara’s wildlife is seasonally reliant on dispersal areas outside the reserve, which results in considerable conflict between people and wildlife. Local communities are entitled to receive 19% of reserve revenues as compensation, but have received little or no money since the mid-1990s. The turnaround in financial management in Trans Mara suggests that these Italian immunology well but hoping to do better Scientific Information showed that 20% of the 100 most productive Italian investigators are either basic or clinical immunologists (Immunology Letters 73, S51, 2000). I agree with your News Feature that immunology suffers from many of the problems common to Italian biomedical research: insufficient funding and little collaboration with industry. It is to be hoped that the new Research and Education Minister, Letizia Moratti, will recognize the strategic importance of investment in science. Sir — I was delighted to read, in the same issue, your News Feature on science in Italy (Nature 412, 264–265; 2001) and your Naturejobs article on careers in clinical immunology (Naturejobs 19 July, 5; 2001). However, contrary to the statement in Naturejobs, clinical immunology and allergy is a medical specialism in Italy. There are 24 Italian university postgraduate training centres, accepting about 50 medical doctors a year who specialize in allergy and clinical immunology after a four-year programme. In addition, there are about 40 PhD programmes in basic and clinical immunology. Basic and clinical immunology is relatively strong in Italian academic institutions. A recent survey of the productivity of Italian biochemical research commissioned by the Research and Education Ministry showed that immunological disciplines fare much better than other biomedical sciences. And an analysis by the US Institute for NATURE | VOL 413 | 25 OCTOBER 2001 | www.nature.com Gianni Marone President of the Italian Society of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (SIAIC) and of the Italian Federation of Immunological Societies (IFIS), Clinical Immunology Division, University of Naples Federico II, 80131 Naples, Italy Postdocs in France need less red tape, more cash Sir — Having lived in France and worked at the Pasteur Institute for four years, I agree with your editorial “Mixed fortunes in France” (Naturejobs 16 August, 3; 2001) © 2001 Macmillan Magazines Ltd communities could soon see the benefits they are due, which should be equivalent to at least $1 million around the whole reserve. However, as revealed at workshops supported by the United Kingdom’s Darwin Initiative, local residents remain suspicious of this new, private management structure, which appears as yet another neo-colonialist plot to expropriate their land. The onus is on the Mara Conservancy to ensure that benefits flow to neighbouring communities via the local council as rapidly as it is upgrading the resources of the reserve management itself. If financial resources can be effectively captured and appropriately deployed, then real conservation gains could be made, both inside and outside the reserve. The Masai Mara could become a model for tourism-based, sustainable, integrated conservation and development through public–private partnerships. M. J. Walpole & N. Leader-Williams Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NS, Kent, UK 1. James, A. N., Gaston, K. J. & Balmford, A. Nature 401, 323–324 (1999). 2. Mbaria, J. East African 354, 8 (2001). 3. Ottichilo, W. K., de Leeuw, J. & Prins, H. H. T. African Journal of Ecology 38, 202–216 (2000). that, in general, there is no lack of candidates for postdoctoral positions in European (or North American) institutions. I also agree that the definition of a ‘quality’ candidate varies depending on a lab director’s priorities and vision. Certain particularities of the French system explain why some organizations there say they have difficulties attracting quality candidates. Funding for newly graduated French PhDs makes it very difficult for them to stay in France to continue their training. There are very few external postdoctoral funding sources, so unless candidates are admitted to permanent positions with the CNRS or INSERM they cannot be paid from a lab’s operating budget (as is done in the United States and Canada). Hence, many high-quality candidates are forced to leave France and continue their training elsewhere. For foreign candidates, the situation in France is complicated. The lack of domestic funding for postdoc salaries means that most foreign candidates must arrive with their own funding. Postdocs from other European countries have an 771 correspondence easier time than those from elsewhere. Many of the former can obtain funding from organizations in their home countries or from other European community sources, and immigration issue (...truncated)