A final issue continues to be ambiguous wording, to ensure the goal and target are not confusing or contradictory - they must be sufficiently clear for implementation and measurement. The terms ‘safeguarded’ and ‘maintained’ may cause confusion, unless it is made clear that safeguarded means ‘protected’ (in seed banks and in protected areas) and ‘maintained’ means ‘not lost.’ Two other similar words are ‘genetic diversity’ and ‘adaptive potential’; both terms were recommended previously (Hoban et al. 2020; Díaz et al. 2020). Geneticists typically interpret ‘genetic diversity’ as genome-wide measures and ‘adaptive potential’ as diversity in functional genes, or more generally as the extent to which populations can evolve, which is a consequence of genetic diversity. The two are not duplicative or fully interchangeable. Retaining the wording ‘adaptive potential’ also emphasizes the need for future adaptation of populations to climate change, disease, and other challenges - a critical message for society and policy makers.