The value of validated vulnerability data for conservation planning in rapidly changing landscapes.

Data needed for informed conservation prioritization are generally greater than the data available, and surrogates are often used. Although the need to anticipate threats is recognized, the effectiveness of surrogates for predicting habitat loss (or vulnerability) to land-use change is seldom tested. Here, we compared properties of two different vulnerability surrogates to validated vulnerability-validated prediction of habitat conversion based on a recent assessment of land-use change.