Free and open-access satellite data are key to biodiversity conservation

Biodiversity underpins the health of ecosystems and the services they provide to society. Yet biodiversity is in rapid decline globally, despite commitments by world leaders to reduce the rate of loss (1). Monitoring is an essential part of biodiversity conservation, allowing governments and civil society to identify problems, develop solutions, and assess progress (2). Satellite imagery has emerged as a vital tool for monitoring the status of environmental parameters relevant to biodiversity conservation (3-5). Tackling a global challenge like biodiversity loss requires the assembly of global information products. Satellite remote sensing is especially useful at generating consistent observation records of key drivers of biodiversity change (i.e., land cover and land use dynamics, climate variables, and sea surface conditions) at a global level (6-8). A recent review of the needs of the biodiversity research and conservation communities for satellite remote sensing (9) uncovered three factors, which are rooted in government and commercial policies and actions, that ultimately have a disproportionate impact on the utility of satellite data for understanding changes in biodiversity. These factors are data continuity, data affordability, and data access.
JRC.H.5-Land Resources Management