The Caribbean’s natural beauty belies a growing environmental crisis. Coral reefs are dying, mangroves are vanishing and seagrass beds—vital to marine life and coastal protection—are rapidly declining. Climate change, pollution, invasive species and overfishing are accelerating the degradation of these ecosystems, threatening biodiversity, economic health and the region’s resilience to natural disasters.
In response, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is deploying cutting-edge technology to help Caribbean nations map and protect their natural resources. With a global mission to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends, TNC’s Caribbean Division is pioneering a model of tech-enabled, locally driven conservation that could reshape how the world approaches environmental stewardship.
The Caribbean’s coastal ecosystems sustain marine life and are vital to regional economies and human wellbeing. Their decline represents not just habitat loss, but a disruption of essential ecological functions with global implications.
Home to 12% of the world’s mangrove forests, the Caribbean has seen nearly 7,000 square kilometers of mangroves disappear in just three decades. This development is concerning because mangroves are ecological powerhouses, buffering coastlines from storms, filtering pollutants, storing carbon and supporting sea life.
Coral reefs, meanwhile, generate tourism revenue—the mainstay of most Caribbean economies—prevent coastal erosion, sustain marine biodiversity and even provide ingredients for life-saving medicines. But in many areas, live coral cover has plummeted by up to 80%.
Often overlooked, seagrasses play a critical role in food production, water purification and carbon sequestration. Yet some regions have lost nearly 40% of their coverage in just four years.
TNC’s campaign to address these environmental issues in the Caribbean began in 1970 with a six-acre preserve on Little St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Since then, it has expanded to 17 countries and territories, with six offices and a team of 80 regional staff. Today, TNC’s conservation strategy blends advanced geospatial technologies with strong local collaboration to foster a better understanding of the region’s natural resources, their condition and how the environment shifts over time.
TNC researchers are deploying a multi-layered data collection strategy that blends cutting-edge technology with on-the-ground validation. These include satellite imagery from platforms like Sentinel-2 and PlanetScope, high-resolution drone surveys, multiband radar and lidar technologies, and field surveys that verify and refine digital interpretations.
TNC then employs a toolkit of powerful geographic information system (GIS) technology to analyze and visualize the collected data, including:
These solutions support key applications, such as:
When combined, these tools and technologies enable TNC to map the extent, condition and change of key ecosystems, providing vital data for conservation, preservation and restoration efforts.
Technology alone isn’t enough. Conservation efforts hinge on empowering local entities to take ownership. Through workshops and training programs, TNC equips government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community groups with the skills to operate GIS, drones and remote sensing tools, and use data collected to create, implement and defend environmental protection policies.
By transferring knowledge and tools, TNC is building a foundation for conservation initiatives that are locally led and enduring. TNC also supports national policy development and collaborates with national and state agencies to determine the most effective ways to invest funding to support their efforts.
TNC’s high-tech approach is already yielding impressive results. In Barbados, TNC is assisting the government to design a Marine Spatial Plan that designates 30% of the country’s 185,000 km2 Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for marine protection, effectively balancing conservation needs with economic zones for the tourism, fishing and energy sectors. For the first time, deep-sea habitats were modeled, and targeted surveys were conducted to validate and document critical ecological baselines. The MSP process is designed to benefit all users of the marine space—both directly and indirectly—by ensuring long-term protection of vital ecosystems, supporting livelihoods, boosting business prosperity, minimizing conflicts and incompatible uses, unlocking new opportunities for investment, securing sustainable fishing access, and fostering collaboration between government and the maritime sector.
In The Bahamas, TNC launched the Mangrove Mapping Initiative to develop the first high resolution mangrove inventory at a national scale - mapping over 5,000 km² of mangrove forests. This effort utilized thousands of Planetscope satellite images, segmented into objects and classified using drone-collected field data. A key achievement was the detailed mapping of sparse scrub mangroves—often missed in traditional surveys—and the accurate delineation of elevation transitions between mangrove ecosystems and upland coppice forests, which are frequently misclassified. Through the Blue Carbon Explorer, a Google Earth Engine tool developed by TNC, managers can now identify priority areas, monitor ecosystem changes, and guide targeted restoration efforts. TNC is also building local capacity by training stakeholders and supporting The Bahamas National Trust in developing climate-smart management plans. By mainstreaming nature-based solutions (NBS)—like mangrove conservation—into national climate and development policies, mangroves are being promoted as key ecosystems for climate adaptation, coastal resilience, and carbon sequestration.
In partnership with the Centre for Marine Sciences at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts, TNC completed the first high resolution blue carbon (mangroves and seagrass) inventory of Jamaica at a national scale that is providing significant guidance for national climate policy and coastal ecosystem management. This comprehensive mapping effort incorporates carbon stock assessments to quantify the climate mitigation potential of these ecosystems. The resulting data are informing conservation priorities that are contributing directly to Jamaica’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, positioning blue carbon as a key component of the country’s climate and coastal ecosystem management strategy.
Over the past two years, the Caribbean has experienced unprecedented coral bleaching, driven by record-breaking marine heatwaves and prolonged thermal stress. In the USVI, TNC has been monitoring the impacts of these bleaching events using drones and AI to map and monitor the extent of bleached corals and track their rates of recovery. These methods have made it more efficient to monitor vast reef tracks and identify coral colonies that have survived, helping reef scientists to adaptively manage coral and study the genetics of colonies that are more adapted to survive warmer temperatures.
As environmental and climate threats intensify and become more frequent, TNC’s work in the Caribbean offers a compelling blueprint for global conservation. TNC’s combination of advanced technology, local empowerment and strategic collaboration is not only aimed at reversing ecosystem decline—it’s redefining what’s possible.
By investing in high-quality geospatial data and educating local entities, TNC is helping Caribbean nations take ownership of their natural resources and chart a sustainable path forward. This model—grounded in science, supported by technology and sustained by community—can be replicated in vulnerable regions worldwide.
What’s emerging in the Caribbean is a prototype for global environmental change— showing how communities worldwide can leverage cutting-edge GIS solutions to drive effective conservation efforts that make a lasting impact on their most critically impacted areas.
About the Author
Dr. Steve Schill is the Lead Scientist for the Caribbean Division at The Nature Conservancy. His expertise includes remote sensing of marine habitats, systematic design of marine spatial plans and the development of GIS-based decision-support tools.
