Nowadays, remote sensing technique has become the main method for monitoring biodiversity on regional and global scale. This paper reviews the new advances in remote sensing research for biodiversity monitoring. The theoretical basis of biodiversity study using remote sensing technique includes: Spectral variation hypothesis, Productivity hypothesis and Species-area relationship theory. The progress of using new hyperspatial and hyperspectral data for directly retrieval biodiversity indexes and its limitations are discussed in this paper. The method based on various environmental parameters derived from remote sensing data to simulate and predict biodiversity is the common one used at present, which is analyzed in detail, and the related models are introduced as well. Finally, a summary is presented. The basic principles of selecting appropriate remote sensing data and research scale are proposed, and the applicable limitations of this method in China are summarized. Strengthening multidisciplinary cooperation, combining remote sensing technique and ecological models, and emphasizing the role of ground-based data will be the developmental trends of remote sensing research for biodiversity monitoring.