Many pest-free islands are sucking noticeably more carbon since introduced predators were removed, according to a study that looked at 130 New Zealand islands.
Researchers used remote satellite sensing and artificial intelligence to track whether removing invasive pests from islands had boosted tree cover and density on 460 islands globally, including Little Barrier, Motiti, Raoul, Great Mercury and Campbell islands.
Pest-free islands had gained an average of half a tonne of carbon per hectare per year.
New Zealand’s pest-free islands provide a safe haven for threatened native wildlife including takahē, kākāpō, kokako, kiwi, geckos, skinks, bats, wetāpunga and tuatara.
For decades successive governments have run campaigns to remove invasive pests, such as rats, stoats and possums from New Zealand forests and reserves.
