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Scientific diasporas can accelerate the implementation of global biodiversity goals

Nature Reviews Biodiversity volume 1, pages 413–415 (2025)Cite this article

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Highly skilled scientists who live and work outside of their country of origin build capacity in their home countries from afar. In this Comment, we argue that these ‘scientific diasporas’ have great potential to advance progress in biodiversity conservation.

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Acknowledgements

J.P. and M.M. acknowledge the support of the Penn State Institute of the Energy and Environment for providing funding to participate at COP16 in Cali, Colombia and funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Gilliam Program. The authors express their gratitude to the Colombian scientific diaspora who participated in our virtual and in-person events, with special recognition to N. Matiz from BioGeCo-Germany, Y. Tibaduiza from the Asociación Académica y Científica de Colombianos-México, F. Colmenares from BERSTIC network, N. Arias from The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World Colombian Chapter, F. Galia and E. Gross from ColiFri-France, M. Florez from the Gremio Doctoral Colombiano, and the ‘Mesa Intersectorial de Diplomacia Científica de Colombia – MIDICI’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Education Policy Studies Department, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Julian Prieto

  2. Environmental Studies Department, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela

  3. Center for Tropical Research, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Felipe Zapata

  4. Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Mónica Medina

Authors
  1. Julian Prieto
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  2. Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela
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  3. Felipe Zapata
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  4. Mónica Medina
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julian Prieto.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Related links

CBD Clearing-House Mechanism: https://chm.cbd.int/en/

Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: https://www.ipbes.net/global-assessment

Migration Data Portal: https://www.migrationdataportal.org/international-data?i=stud_out_&t=2022

Scientific Panel for the Amazon: https://www.theamazonwewant.org/3858-2/

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Prieto, J., Ocampo-Peñuela, N., Zapata, F. et al. Scientific diasporas can accelerate the implementation of global biodiversity goals. Nat. Rev. Biodivers. 1, 413–415 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44358-025-00055-8

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