International wildlife trade is implicitly complex and esoteric. Oftentimes, the data are doubly so, as crucial contextual information is not readily apparent. Working effectively with these data often requires a robust comprehension of international and domestic trade processes as well as their intersections with national policy administration, conservation, and ecological processes. Weissgold (2024) calls attention to important limitations affecting the utility of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Law Enforcement Management Information System (LEMIS) wildlife trade data. However, to prevent further misunderstanding of the LEMIS system, it is necessary to address a sentiment expressed by Weissgold regarding the apparent incompleteness of LEMIS records. The goal of this response is to help researchers working with LEMIS data understand that the LEMIS Declaration subsystem documents a specific subset of international wildlife trade. This understanding is vital for accurate analyses.

As Weissgold states, LEMIS wildlife trade data are typically extracted from the LEMIS Declaration subsystem, which omits many confirmed occurrences of illegal wildlife trade interdiction. Wildlife trade activity must qualify as an import or an export before it is eligible to become a LEMIS wildlife trade database record. LEMIS wildlife trade data are records of wildlife trade events processed by USFWS wildlife inspectors, whose jurisdiction is defined by inspection, search, and seizure authority at international land, sea, and air borders as well as at functional equivalents of the border (USFWS, 2008a). Satisfaction of this “border nexus” condition underpins the USFWS Office of Law Enforcement's (OLE) review of trade declarations for internationally traded wildlife (USFWS, 2008b). Domestic instances of illegal wildlife trade handled by USFWS OLE special agents, whether the wildlife was ultimately intended for export or not, are documented elsewhere within LEMIS and must be specifically requested from the Investigations, Violations, or other LEMIS subsystems (USDOI, 2020). The absence of these records from the LEMIS Declaration subsystem data is not a result of procedural or data entry errors.

LEMIS data users should also note that the LEMIS Declaration subsystem is not a complete record of lawful U.S. international wildlife trade and information gaps abound. If a trade event satisfies any of a series of conditions prescribed by USFWS and the wildlife is not protected by key U.S. legislation such as the Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Act, the Lacey Act, etc., then the import (or export) may be exempt from declaration to the USFWS and thus not recorded in LEMIS (Table 1) (U.S.C Title 50 §, 14.62; U.S.C Title 50 §, 14.64). In a dataset as large as LEMIS, records skewed towards or against the recording of certain taxa or types of trade can lead to misrepresentations of the economic, social, and ecological impacts of trade. These resultant data gaps should be acknowledged and explored for their conservation and policy implications as they are likely to contribute towards mischaracterizations in LEMIS data analyses.

国际野生动物贸易无疑是复杂而深奥的。通常情况下，数据会加倍，因为关键的上下文信息并不明显。有效地处理这些数据通常需要对国际和国内贸易过程及其与国家政策管理、保护和生态过程的交叉点有深入的了解。 Weissgold（2024）呼吁人们注意影响美国鱼类和野生动物管理局（USFWS）执法管理信息系统（LEMIS）野生动物贸易数据效用的重要限制。然而，为了防止对 LEMIS 系统的进一步误解，有必要解决 Weissgold 表达的关于 LEMIS 记录明显不完整的观点。此回复的目的是帮助处理 LEMIS 数据的研究人员了解 LEMIS 声明子系统记录了国际野生动物贸易的特定子集。这种理解对于准确分析至关重要。

正如 Weissgold 所说，LEMIS 野生动物贸易数据通常是从 LEMIS 声明子系统中提取的，该子系统忽略了许多已确认的非法野生动物贸易拦截事件。野生动物贸易活动必须符合进口或出口资格，才有资格成为 LEMIS 野生动物贸易数据库记录。 LEMIS 野生动物贸易数据是由 USFWS 野生动物检查员处理的野生动物贸易事件的记录，其管辖范围由国际陆地、海洋和空中边界以及边境功能等效机构的检查、搜查和扣押机构确定（USFWS，2008a） ）。满足这一“边境联系”条件是 USFWS 执法办公室 (OLE) 对国际贸易野生动物的贸易申报进行审查的基础（USFWS，2008b）。由 USFWS OLE 特工处理的国内非法野生动物贸易案例，无论野生动物最终是否用于出口，都记录在 LEMIS 内的其他地方，并且必须向调查、违规或其他 LEMIS 子系统提出具体要求（USDOI，2020）。 LEMIS 声明子系统数据中缺少这些记录并不是由于程序或数据输入错误造成的。

LEMIS 数据用户还应注意，LEMIS 声明子系统并不是美国合法国际野生动物贸易的完整记录，并且信息差距很大。如果贸易活动满足 USFWS 规定的一系列条件中的任何一个，并且野生动物不受美国主要立法（例如《濒危物种法》、《海洋哺乳动物法》、《雷斯法》等）的保护，则进口（或出口）可能免于向 USFWS 申报，因此不会记录在 LEMIS 中（表 1）（U.S.C Title 50 §, 14.62；U.S.C Title 50 §, 14.64）。在像 LEMIS 这样大的数据集中，偏向或反对某些分类群或贸易类型的记录可能会导致贸易对经济、社会和生态影响的误传。应承认并探讨由此产生的这些数据差距，以了解其保护和政策影响，因为它们可能会导致 LEMIS 数据分析中的错误描述。