This volume includes contributions to a symposium entitled State of the Art in Vegetation Monitoring Approaches and organized by the Swiss Federal Research Institute in Birmensdorf, Switzerland, on March 24-26, 2003. The papers cover a wide range of topics, from scale problems and other theoretical issues to the most practical questions of data quality. Several contributions rely on remotely sensed data. Sampling design and statistical analysis are of primary concern in many articles. Most papers concentrate upon the observation of biological variables, some are motivated by nature conservation efforts.