diff --git a/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/jni/SafeReleaseJniRef.cpp b/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/jni/SafeReleaseJniRef.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7eb5f504d77
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/jni/SafeReleaseJniRef.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) Meta Platforms, Inc. and affiliates.
+ *
+ * This source code is licensed under the MIT license found in the
+ * LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree.
+ */
+
+#include <react/jni/SafeReleaseJniRef.h>
+
+namespace facebook::react {
+
+void ensureThreadDurationJNIEnvAttached() {
+  // Attaching and detaching the thread to the JNI environment may take
+  // hundreds of microseconds, and we attach to a very limited number of
+  // threads (in practice, just the Hermes GC), so we only perform
+  // registration once, detaching before the thread is destroyed.
+  //
+  // > In Android 2.0 (Eclair) and higher you can use pthread_key_create() to
+  // > define a destructor function that will be called before the thread
+  // > exits, and call DetachCurrentThread() from there.
+  // https://github.com/facebookincubator/fbjni/blob/7b7efda0d49b956acf1d3307510e3c73fc55b404/cxx/fbjni/detail/Environment.h#L101
+  // https://developer.android.com/training/articles/perf-jni#threads
+  static thread_local std::optional<jni::ThreadScope> threadScope;
+
+  if (jni::detail::currentOrNull() == nullptr) {
+    threadScope.emplace();
+  }
+}
+
+} // namespace facebook::react
diff --git a/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/jni/SafeReleaseJniRef.h b/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/jni/SafeReleaseJniRef.h
index 65fb1f8502c..af1eb84fa3c 100644
--- a/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/jni/SafeReleaseJniRef.h
+++ b/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/jni/react/jni/SafeReleaseJniRef.h
@@ -12,6 +12,12 @@
 
 namespace facebook::react {
 
+/**
+ * Ensures that the current thread has an attached JNI environment, setting one
+ * up to be detached at the end of the thread's lifetime if not.
+ */
+void ensureThreadDurationJNIEnvAttached();
+
 /**
  * A wrapper around a JNI reference (e.g. jni::global_ref<>) that makes it safe
  * to destroy (decrement refcount) from any thread. This wrapping is necessary
@@ -29,6 +35,7 @@ class SafeReleaseJniRef {
   using T = std::remove_reference<decltype(*std::declval<RefT>())>::type;
 
  public:
+  SafeReleaseJniRef() = default;
   /* explicit */ SafeReleaseJniRef(RefT ref) : ref_(std::move(ref)) {}
   SafeReleaseJniRef(const SafeReleaseJniRef& other) = default;
   SafeReleaseJniRef(SafeReleaseJniRef&& other) = default;
@@ -37,7 +44,7 @@ class SafeReleaseJniRef {
 
   ~SafeReleaseJniRef() {
     if (ref_) {
-      jni::ThreadScope ts;
+      ensureThreadDurationJNIEnvAttached();
       ref_.reset();
     }
   }
@@ -66,6 +73,10 @@ class SafeReleaseJniRef {
     return ref_;
   }
 
+  RefT::javaobject get() const {
+    return ref_.get();
+  }
+
  private:
   RefT ref_;
 };