Humankind is facing unprecedented threats caused by our unsustainable use of Earths natural resources. Increasingly, we are realizing the finite capacity of our globe to absorb the consequences of our activities: ongoing degradation and loss of natural ecosystems and dependent species; overuse of resources; pollution of water, land and the atmosphere; and modifications in atmospheric composition leading to climate change with all its consequences. The universally agreed target to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of loss of biodiversity by the year 2010 has provided cohesion to the efforts of Governments, non-governmental organizations, private sector partners, and civil society alike to collaboratively reduce the size of our ecological footprint. Technological advances, refined methodologies and growing databases make our systems for monitoring biodiversity increasingly effective. As this document demonstrates, remote sensing is without a doubt one of the indispensable tools for detecting changes in multiple facets of biodiversity over time. Through this document, a number of applied researchers share their expertise in the use of remote sensing for monitoring indicators relevant to biodiversity. Using examples and simplified technical language they explain what is currently feasible with remote sensing and approximately at what cost. In this way, the document promotes a common understanding among technical specialists in remote sensing, environmental managers and policy makers and helps us make decisions on where, when and how to use remote sensing information. The collective experience represented here will help readers to identify feasible options for implementing activities that will monitor progress toward global, regional, and national goals and targets. We hope the document will facilitate the widespread but judicious adoption of remote sensing in creating operational indicators for use by national agencies and also contribute to an improvement in the quality of global indicators. Remote sensing is not the only answer to monitoring the crisis of biodiversity loss, but strategic use of remote sensing data can be ready improve national, international, and organizational efforts to monitor progress toward the 2010 target.