Beyond the Debate: Integrating eDNA monitoring into governance and business frameworks

Achieving the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework within our oceans requires robust and scalable biodiversity data. Yet, despite the expanding monitoring obligations under both governance and corporate acting spaces, a persistent gap between policy ambitions and monitoring methods still persists. Current methods used to monitor marine biodiversity often produce biased results, with limited spatial, temporal and/or taxonomic coverage as well as inconsistencies across programmes and methodologies that undermine data quality. Addressing these limitations requires new tools capable of generating reliable and comprehensive biodiversity data at scale. Environmental DNA (eDNA) offers a mature and validated approach that complements existing monitoring frameworks, while generating data well-suited for both governance and corporate reporting needs. In this work, we move beyond the debate and explore how eDNA can operationalise biodiversity monitoring obligations across policy levels, focusing on EU fisheries as a case analysis. We map existing governance and corporate reporting frameworks, such as the Common Fisheries Policy, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the European Sustainability Reporting Standard E4, or the emerging Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures requirements, together with their impact metrics and monitoring requirements to illustrate where and how eDNA can enhance compliance and data robustness. In data-deficient contexts, such as for low-value or bycatch species, or companies with extensive operational footprints, eDNA methods can substantially improve biodiversity assessments by providing finer spatial and taxonomic resolution, filling data gaps and allowing for the detection of population trends, range shifts, and changes in the community simultaneously. In the end, we outline actionable steps for integrating eDNA into governance and corporate monitoring systems, such as piloting eDNA projects in policy-relevant contexts, fostering collaborations between academia, governance bodies, and companies, co-developing tools with relevant stakeholders for bioinformatic analysis to ensure usability and impact, or direct efforts towards white papers/policy briefs to support implementation and policy uptake. On another level, involving civil society actors, such as non-governmental organizations or private certification schemes, could further accelerate adoption by advocating for eDNA integration. Integrating eDNA-based monitoring within our oceans governance could bridge the existing data gaps and accelerate our measurable progress toward global biodiversity targets.