Biodiversity monitoring is an obligatory component in many international agreements. The Convention on Biological Diversity obliges each contracting party, 'as far as possible and as appropriate', to 'identify components of biological diversity important for its conservation and sustainable use ..., to 'monitor, through sampling and other techniques, the components of biological diversity identified' ..., as well as to 'identify processes and categories of activities which have or are likely to have significant adverse impacts on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and monitor their effects through sampling and other techniques' (Art. 7).
In the European Union, biodiversity monitoring is also explicitly included in many policy documents, such as the European Environmental Action plan, the European Biodiversity Strategy, and the 2010 target of halting the loss of biodiversity. Most importantly, the Habitats and Birds Directives legally bind Member States to monitor biodiversity.