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Conservation actions need to be prioritized, often taking into account species' extinction risk. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List provides an accepted, objective framework for the assessment of extinction risk. Assessments based on data collected in the field are the best option, but the field data to base these on are often limited. Information collected through remote sensing can be used in place of field data to inform assessments. Forests are perhaps the best-studied land-cover type for use of remote-sensing data. Using an open-access 30-m resolution map of tree cover and its change between 2000 and 2012, we assessed the extent of forest cover and loss within the distributions of 11,186 forest-dependent amphibians, birds, and mammals worldwide. For 16 species, forest loss resulted in an elevated extinction risk under red-list criterion A, owing to inferred rapid population declines. This number increased to 23 when data-deficient species (i.e., those with insufficient information for evaluation) were included. Under red-list criterion B2, 484 species (855 when data-deficient species were included) were considered at elevated extinction risk, owing to restricted areas of occupancy resulting from little forest cover remaining within their ranges. The proportion of species of conservation concern would increase by 32.8% for amphibians, 15.1% for birds, and 24.7% for mammals if our suggested uplistings are accepted. Central America, the Northern Andes, Madagascar, the Eastern Arc forests in Africa, and the islands of Southeast Asia are hotspots for these species. Our results illustrate the utility of satellite imagery for global extinction-risk assessment and measurement of progress toward international environmental agreement targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The contribution that remotely sensed satellite imagery could make to biodiversity monitoring is widely recognized, but remains largely unfulfilled at regional and global scales. Here, we use a publicly accessible global dataset to quantify forest loss during 2000–2012 across the world's 7279 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) that support forest bird species, and examine correlates of forest loss. Forest covered around 2 912 000 km2 in these IBAs in 2000, but had decreased by around 73 000 km2 by 2012, a 2.52% loss across all IBAs. The median loss within IBAs was 0.87% during this period, although high losses on some IBAs skewed the mean to 2.59%. Rates of forest loss in IBAs were highest in South America and South East Asia. The rate of forest loss increased notably between 2003 and 2007. In addition to the effect of year, the best fit model of forest loss contained coverage of IBAs by protected areas, altitude, slope, GDP and human population density. The parameter estimates of a best fit model indicated forest loss decrease with increased protected area coverage, increased IBA altitude, increased IBA steepness and increased IBA human population. Forest loss decreased with per capita national GDP. The model explained only a small amount of variation in forest loss and as such is inappropriate to make predictions about where future loss will occur. We provide open access code to undertake online analysis of future forest cover change data, aiding the remote monitoring of forest cover at any suite of priority sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]