Smart Solutions, Big Returns: Closing Biodiversity Knowledge Gaps with Digital Agriculture

The global expansion and intensification of food production threaten biodiversity, vital for ecosystem services and food security. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) advocates drastic changes in agricultural management, yet translating recommendations into local action is challenging. Biodiversity-friendly practices carry highly uncertain benefits, dissuading their adoption. Reducing uncertainties demands systematic data on biodiversity-yield interactions. Yet, many biodiversity studies lack such detailed data, and food production systems remain underrepresented in global biodiversity datasets. Here, we illustrate how Digital Agriculture can address these issues. It uses technologies also applied in biodiversity monitoring, but is currently treated separately, leading to duplication of effort and costs. Digital Agriculture provides a low-cost, low-effort solution for monitoring biodiversity in food production systems, linking it directly to land management practices, and benefiting multiple stakeholders without creating additional monitoring requirements. This integration has the potential to increase the effectiveness of the GBF in promoting sustainable agricultural practices.