The challenge is to identify solutions to problems, not just participate in a process that shifts harm and defers solutions. Our response is provided in the spirit of wanting to help to restore and sustain “the mauri (life force) of nature.” Innovation is clearly needed to achieve this objective, but so is learning from past mistakes. The problems caused by many exotic plants and animals in AotearoaNew Zealand are themselves the outcomes of past innovations. For example, stoats were introduced as a biocontrol of rabbits2 that were introduced for food, sport and fur.3 These innovations were not called biotechnology, but were consistent with how we define it today because they were attempts to modify ecosystems to suit particular agricultural uses or to mitigate the impacts of those modifications. 4 Both information and biotechnology can be powerful tools when applied to understanding the causes of harm to biodiversity, monitoring and identifying the source of harm, and informing strategic approaches to limiting or eliminating adverse effects on native organisms. When used in a precisely defined framework that emphasises the value of biotechnology as an information provider, rather than a way to intervene in nature, it can be used safely with little risk that future generations will be correcting mistakes, as we are correcting the mistakes of generations that preceded us.