Free satellite data key to conservation

Abstract

Biodiversity is in crisis, with extinction rates orders of magnitude higher than background levels (1). Underfunded conservationists need to target their limited resources effectively. Over the past decade, satellite remote sensing has revolutionized our ability to monitor biodiversity globally, and is now used routinely, especially by nongovernmental organizations, to detect changes, set priorities, and target conservation action. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) unlocked high-resolution Landsat data in 2008 (2), making data available online (3), and the Copernicus program from the European Commission subsequently made their data available as well (4). These resources have been instrumental to biodiversity research. Assessments of environmental changes such as deforestation are now readily available. The current spatial and spectral resolution of Landsat data make them appropriate to many conservation applications, and although they are not always ideal, pragmatic researchers with limited resources use them regularly. Conservationists have already called for these data to remain free (5). Consequently, the news that USGS may charge for data (6) is deeply troubling.