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The Nerdy Target

There has always been a tug-of-war between human brilliance and human greed. In the worst cases, the two merge — and brilliance ends up serving greed. A bleak thought. So let’s pivot to something better: constructive innovation. Across the world, millions of people are working with curiosity, creativity, and commitment. They’re developing climate models, building biodiversity-monitoring satellites, tracking water and soil health, and designing large-scale sustainable agriculture systems.

This is their target.

“Strengthen capacity-building and scientific and technical cooperation for biodiversity”

You wouldn’t know it from the original 78-word sentence, but this is one of the coolest — and most quietly radical — targets in the entire framework. (SDG nerds may recognize it as a close cousin of SDG 17.6.)

“Strengthen capacity-building and development, access to and transfer of technology, and promote development of and access to innovation and technical and scientific cooperation, including through South‑South, North‑South and triangular cooperation, to meet the needs for effective implementation, particularly in developing countries, fostering joint technology development and joint scientific research programmes for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and strengthening scientific research and monitoring capacities, commensurate with the ambition of the goals and targets of the Framework.”

Translation?

The target is about sharing knowledge, tools, and tech — not hoarding them.

Here’s what that actually looks like:

In northern Brazil, a team of young scientists uses drones to monitor deforestation and help Local Communities restore degraded mangrove forests. The drones scan the coastline, collect real-time data on plant health, and identify areas where natural regeneration is likely to succeed. This collaboration between Indigenous knowledge and tech innovation didn’t exist a few years ago — now it’s reshaping the conservation effort.

And they’re not alone.

From acoustic sensors listening for whales to camera traps capturing snow leopards, from invasive species trackers to data dashboards for policymakers — this is the infrastructure of understanding biodiversity.

And without this understanding, action often fail. And without cooperation, there is no justice.

This target isn’t just about better tools. It’s about making sure everyone has them.