An insect- and EO-based indicator reveals microhabitat-driven biodiversity intactness across Africa

Global biodiversity is declining at unprecedented rates, yet most monitoring indicators remain vertebrate-centric. Here, we introduce an insect-based biodiversity intactness (IBI) indicator, demonstrated across Africa, that integrates large-scale insect occurrence records with Earth Observation data and a pre-human baseline of potential insect diversity. The IBI reveals gradients of ecosystem intactness across all major African agro-ecological zones and detects sensitivity to land-use mosaics such as agroforestry. Unlike vertebrate-based indices, it captures fine-scale ecological variation and reflects the importance of residual vegetation within agro-ecological systems. Block-based cross-validation provides transparent uncertainty estimates, enabling the IBI to scale from local assessments to continental monitoring. Beyond the African case study, the framework is globally transferable, offering a standardized insect-based measure for biodiversity monitoring and policy reporting under the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.