Scientists from Island Conservation, Arizona State University’s Center for Biodiversity Outcomes, the University of Maryland’s Department of Geosciences, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, FLINTpro Corp., and terraPulse Inc. have recently published a groundbreaking paper in Environmental Research Letters that highlights the crucial role of invasive species removal in enhancing climate resilience. The study, titled “Toward the quantification of the climate co-benefits of invasive mammal eradication on islands: A scalable framework for restoration monitoring,” provides compelling evidence that eradicating invasive species not only prevents biodiversity loss but also aids in protecting and restoring globally unique carbon stocks, making it an effective nature-based solution to combat climate change. 

Invasive mammal eradication is a proven conservation intervention that protects islands, rich in biological and cultural diversity, from experiencing biodiversity loss. However, the focus on biodiversity means that less attention has been paid to the climate resilience benefits of invasive mammal removal—an oversight this study seeks to remedy through quantifiable data. 

To assess the global effectiveness of these interventions, the researchers developed a consistent and scalable framework for long-term monitoring of tree cover, forest extent, forest carbon, and vegetation productivity across 1,078 islands in 17 ecoregions. By analyzing satellite-derived NASA Earth observation data over a span of 36 years, the study revealed significant and sustained positive trends in all indices on islands where eradication efforts were implemented. 

“We demonstrate how a scalable, globally consistent approach could be employed to monitor ecosystem change on islands, meeting a critical need for integrating invasive mammal eradication as a nature-based solution for ecosystem resilience into climate policy discussions,” said Miroslav Honzak from Arizona State University and first author of the paper. 

The findings demonstrate that these islands collectively sustain over 940,000 hectares of forest and 53 million metric tons of forest carbon. This novel framework not only enables the measurement of climate co-benefits but also provides a low-cost and globally applicable methodology for assessing ecosystem recovery dynamics on islands for the future. 

“This is the first time that the collective climate benefits of locally-led island restoration efforts have been documented, showing the powerful potential for these actions to act as a natural climate solution,” said David Will, Director of Impact and Innovation for Island Conservation and lead researcher. “It highlights the significant, and yet overlooked, role that invasive mammal removal plays in protecting and restoring carbon stocks of native woody vegetation that exist nowhere else in the world.” 

The publication of this paper marks a significant milestone in understanding the potential of island restoration following invasive species removal to build climate resilience. 

“We leveraged the power of artificial intelligence and cloud computing to generate the first-ever high spatial and temporal resolution estimates of tree cover for nearly 1,000 islands around the world,” said Dr. Joseph Sexton, Chief Scientist of terraPulse, which generated the remote sensing products for the study. “Most of the existing global satellite-based forest data overlook these islands – we see them now in high resolution, and they are important.” 

“Islands are unique ecosystems that offer genuine opportunities to improve climate resilience, as well as support broader climate goals,” said Geoff Roberts, Head of APAC Business Development at FLINTpro, a nature analytics company. “Through the partnership between researchers, remote sensing experts, and modeling experts, we were able to generate unique insights into changes in forest carbon across a geographically and ecologically diverse set of islands. The project underscores the importance of data-informed analysis in assessing conservation and land management results.”  

Harrison McKenzie-McHarg, co-author and solutions architect at FLINTpro, shared these sentiments, saying, “This project brought together leading nature technology innovations and implemented them on a global scale, a critical step in advancing global island monitoring and for unlocking nature finance. This establishes a strong foundation for scaling island restoration efforts supported by transparent spatial monitoring systems.” 

The resulting data are publicly available via a terraView data portal and interactive web tool. The partners’ next steps are to refine and expand this monitoring framework through a four-year project funded by the NASA Ecological Conservation program and Salesforce Nature Accelerator. The research was supported by PF2050 Ltd., Clare.nz, Jach Charitable Fund, Ananta Family Office, and James Wei.  

Media inquiries: 

Bren Ram, Island Conservation: bren.ram@islandconservation.org 

Photos for press can be found here (credit: Island Conservation)

About the collaborators: 

Island Conservation’s mission is to restore islands for nature and people worldwide and we collaborate with local communities, government management agencies, and conservation organizations on islands with the greatest potential for preventing the extinction of globally threatened species. Island Conservation is a United States-based 501(c)(3) charitable organization that restores islands by removing introduced, damaging invasive species and accelerating the recovery of native plants and animals. We utilize innovative technology and techniques to work more efficiently and showcase the many benefits of holistically restored islands for biodiversity, climate resilience, ocean health, and sustainable development across the globe. Visit us at islandconservation.org. 

The Center for Biodiversity Outcomes (CBO) at Arizona State University is a hub for biodiversity research. CBO brings together the expertise of researchers at ASU and other institutions to address urgent issues in conservation biology. Through our partnerships, we centralize important research and ignite conversations in creative and meaningful ways to achieve common goals of biodiversity conservation and sustainable management of natural resources in the 21^st century. 

University of Maryland’s Department of Geosciences aims to provide high-quality undergraduate and graduate education, to achieve excellence in research, and to interact with society and the State by translating the implications of research through outreach and service, for the benefit of Marylanders, the nation and humankind. 

Hobart and William Smith Colleges  are private liberal arts colleges in Geneva, New York, and a member of the New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium. 

FLINTpro Corp. provides nature analytics technology empowering data-informed decision making for natural capital, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity and regulation compliance. Their mission is to build a way to measure, report, and verify environmental data that drives meaningful change from the smallest farm to the largest countries. 

terraPulse Inc. is a geospatial technology company devoted to creating timely, accurate information about the changing world and delivering geospatial solutions to serve sustainable land management. By applying artificial intelligence to global satellite imagery in order to map and monitor ecosystems and detect changes over time, terraPulse provides standard and custom datasets for the science and management of ecosystems, as well as expert advisory and consulting services to enable sustainable land use based on the highest quality geospatial information.