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There are also immediate needs for global extension of monitoring programs and developments in capacity building, design of data collection programs, quality control, and statistical analyses. Most indicators likely to be available in the near future will be based on existing databases and monitoring schemes. However, as the areas richest in biological diversity are often those most lacking resources, current databases and monitoring are usually not fully representative and do not cover a wide enough range of system components. Meta-analyses of other existing, if scattered, data offer considerable scope for plugging some gaps quickly (20). Another possibility is the use of remote sensing to measure both currently and retrospectively the extent and condition of biomes. This approach is already well developed for measuring changes globally in forests (21).