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China is using satellites to police the protection of nature — but will it work?

Scientists say the system will help safeguard nature, but they want more transparency about the zones chosen for conservation.
  1. Dyani Lewis
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China’s government has rolled out a nationwide satellite and automated monitoring system to protect land set aside for conservation from illegal development. Scientists hope that the move will safeguard ecologically important habitats and provide a model of remote-sensing use for conservation that other countries could follow. But they also have questions about how the nation has decided which areas to protect and where the boundaries, known as the ecological redlines, lie.

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Nature 618, 224-225 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01714-6

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 29 May 2023: This article originally stated that China is the first nation to use satellite monitoring. China is the first to use it in combination with machine learning. The text has been corrected.

References

  1. Choi, C.-Y. et al. Conserv. Lett. 15, e12853 (2022).

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