GECI — Bringing Mexico's Seabird Islands Back to Life

Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas (GECI), based in Ensenada, has spent over 25 years working with Mexico's national protected-areas agency CONANP to eradicate invasive predators and herbivores from the country's islands and let native species recover. The program has removed 60 populations of invasive species — including rats, cats, goats and rabbits — from more than 60 islands, using tools from live traps to seabird decoys and artificial nesting burrows to lure species back. On Guadalupe Island, removing feral cats let the Laysan albatross colony grow from 143 breeding pairs in 2013 to roughly 1,700 pairs in 2024, and UN recognition in 2025 credited the wider program with recovering 85% of the seabird colonies once wiped out on Mexico's islands.