back to top
RECENT RELEASE

2025 Species Protection Report

The BGC Center and Map of Life recently released the second annual Species Protection Report. The report assesses global progress towards species protection goals in line with 30x30 through the Species Protection Index, one of three biodiversity metrics developed by the Center and Map of Life.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORTread the articleexplore the storymap

Our Research

The Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change is dedicated to the study of Earth’s biodiversity and the creation of knowledge and tools to guide its conservation. We engage students and researchers in the Yale community and work with science and technology partners worldwide to develop and deliver insights and actionable information around the origin, change, and safeguarding of biodiversity.
‍
Here are some of the major research foci at the Center:

Map of Life

With partners worldwide, we advance ‘Map of Life’, a platform that aims to support effective biodiversity monitoring, research, and decision making from local to global scales by delivering spatially explicit and decision-relevant information on the distribution and trends of species.
Map of life

Biodiversity Indicators

In support of local communities and regional and national stakeholders worldwide, we leverage Map of Life to develop and deliver measurements of biodiversity change. The main three indicators, the Species Habitat, Protection, and Information Indices, are formally endorsed by the Convention on Biological Diversity and address annual trends across thousands of species and for ecosystems worldwide.
Indicators

Spatial Biodiversity Modeling

Our team strives to be forward-thinking in the development of cutting-edge methodologies to maximize insights derived from diverse ecological data over large spatial extents.
Modeling group

Biodiversity Movement

We examine animal movement across scales, from individuals to entire populations, using advanced computational tools, satellite tracking technology, and big data to understand the drivers of animal movement and how it may change in the future.
Movement group

Tools & Platforms

STOAT

A tool for automated annotation of biodiversity occurrence points against dozens of pre-loaded environmental layers.

A blue circle background with a simple digital drawing of a tree inside.

Map of Life

Curated, standardized, and taxonomically harmonized species data for thousands of species all over the world.

A map zoomed into South America showing parts of Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay. A translucent layer is overlaid on the map with a color scale from dark blue to dark red.

EarthEnv

Near-global, standardized, 1 kilometer-resolution remote sensing layers for monitoring and modeling biodiversity, ecosystems, and climate.

A white circle with a digital drawing of a large, green animal eye inside.

Wildlife Insights

An international platform for managing, processing, and sharing camera trap data.

A circular phylogeny graph.

VertLife

A complete, global assembly of phylogenetic, trait, spatial and environment characteristics for a model clade.

Animal Lives

A platform for visualizing and processing animal movement data.

MOL Rapid Assessments

Rapid, localized species surveys in rainforest environments and beyond.

A thick lowercase 'e' filled with a simple image of the Earth.

Half-Earth Project

A compelling interactive map to inspire informed collective action to save the biosphere, the land and waters that global biodiversity depends upon.

Expert Tools

A webtool for streamlining expert evaluations of species distribution models.
Public release coming soon.

Latest News

Biodiversity Indicators
Map of Life
Tz-Hsuan Tseng
November 1, 2025

Species protection rises 6% on land and 4% in the seas in 2025

This year’s Half-Earth Day, hosted at the Field Museum of Chicago and anchored by actor Harrison Ford as special guest, saw the release of the second-annual Species Protection Report produced in partnership by the Map of Life and the E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. 
Publications
Spatial Biodiversity Modeling

No species left behind: Researchers "borrow" data between species to improve modeling results

Publications
Spatial Biodiversity Modeling

Birds Can’t Fly Fast Enough to Escape Warming Climates, study finds

Publications
Spatial Biodiversity Modeling

When a Refuge Becomes a Trap

Publications
Spatial Biodiversity Modeling

High-resolution models most accurately capture bird biodiversity patterns, new study finds

News Bites

COP30

November 10, 2025
Belém, Brazil
Alex Killion was invited to COP30 in Belem, Brazil for a panel on Guyana's pathway to low carbon development and biodiversity conservation leadership. He was joined by President Ali of Guyana, other heads of state, and UN Assistant Secretary-General Michelle Muschett.

Applied Conservation Technology Congress

November 3, 2025
Hanoi, Vietnam
At ACT CON, Meredith gave a keynote presentation on turning complex science into actionable insights, as well as two invited talks, one on the integration of multimodal sensor data and the other an overview of the National Biodiversity Information Systems.

Half-Earth Day

October 29, 2025
Chicago, Illinois
The 2025 Half-Earth Day Celebration was a full day of workshops, speakers, and performances in support of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation’s Half-Earth Project. Walter ran a science workshop on “Supporting conservation outcomes through novel technologies for local biodiversity assessment”. We officially released the 2025 Species Protection Report, and Walter presented the report’s key findings.

Living Data Conference

October 21, 2025
Bogotá, Colombia
Several Center members presented at the Living Data conference: Jeremy presented a talk on his paper about North American birds’ geographic redistributions; Beth presented global SDMs and associated Expert Tools efforts; Alex presented on the National Biodiversity Information Systems; and Walter presented on species population EBVs.

IUCN World Conservation Congress

October 7, 2025
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Claire attended the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi to represent the Center at this global event only held once every four years. She met with key partners, including Esri, The Nature Conservancy, Rainforest Trust, and the Jane Goodall Institute.

Shubhi Sharma's "Habitat Shared" Exhibit Now Live at the Peabody

September 29, 2025
New Haven, Connecticut
BGC Center PhD Candidate Shubhi Sharma's artwork is featured in a new exhibit at the Yale Peabody Museum titled "Habitat Shared". This exhibit features several pieces of her original colored pencil artwork which highlight the ordinary and often overlooked yet profound inter-species relationships within human environments. Shubhi worked with Peabody team members Sydney Muchnik, Andrew Todd, and Andrew Putnam to put together the exhibit. It will be up through May 26.

New York Climate Week

September 21, 2025
New York City
Walter presented a panel about "Innovating for Nature: Technologies applied for biodiversity data in Brazil" at the World Climate and Biodiversity Summit and Claire and Walter hosted a session "Putting species on the map: More effective planetary decision making with Map of Life" as part of the Yale @ Climate Week series.

Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit

July 23, 2025
Georgetown, Guyana
Our team attended the Summit to officially launch the Global Biodiversity Alliance (GBA), as collaborators with the Guyanese government and founding members of the GBA. During the event, we signed an official MOU with the government of Guyana, Alex and Claire both presented, and we worked with a coalition of partners to announce a comprehensive national biodiversity monitoring initiative for the country.

Wildlabs Geospatial Cafe

July 17, 2025
Elise, the Biodiversity Data Coordinator, was invited to speak at the Wildlabs Geospatial Cafe where she presented on the Map of Life Regions Tool.

Esri User Conference

July 13, 2025
San Diego, California
Elise, a Biodiversity Data Coordinator at the Center, attended the Esri User Conference to learn the latest and greatest in map making. Her dashboard submission was "Species Protection Index: Country and Province Explorer", and it was featured in the virtual Map Gallery.

International Congress for Conservation Biology

June 15, 2025
Brisbane, Australia
Claire gave a workshop detailing the Map of Life initiative and associated projects and programs and Tz-Hsuan presented his paper "Hidden suboptimality of cost and area minimization in conservation prioritization model" for which he was a finalist in the Best Oral Talk category.

Women in Nature Network Networking Event

April 1, 2025
Veracruz, Mexico
Claire attended the Women in Nature Network (WiNN) bi-annual in-person networking event, which brings together members of WiNN’s global community from around the world. As the co-chair of WiNN’s board of directors, Claire led the event’s organizing committee and presented in the opening and closing ceremonies.

Oman Climate Week

February 21, 2025
Muscat, Oman
Alex and Claire were invited by the Chairman of the Oman Environment Authority (OEA) to attend Oman Climate Week, where they participated in the conference sessions and conducted workshops with leadership and staff of the OEA.

BioSpace25 Conference

February 10, 2025
Frascati, Italy
Center PhD Candidate Shubhi Sharma presented her work investigating the use of machine learning models for improving species distribution model estimates for data-deficient species at the BioSpace25 conference.

Partners and Sponsors

Yale University
National Geographic
NASA
Microsoft
Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
Half-Earth Project
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Google
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
GEO BON
Field Museum
Esri
E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation
Burt's Bees