Using remote sensing to inform conservation status assessment: Estimates of recent deforestation rates on New Britain and the impacts upon endemic birds

Remote sensing is increasingly used by policy-makers and conservationists to identify conservation priorities and changes in land cover. This is particularly important in the biodiverse tropics, where there are often few field data. Conservation action is often directed towards areas containing globally threatened species, but there have been few attempts to improve assessments of species’ extinction risk through remote sensing.