Vegetation Classification Working Group

The Vegetation Classification Working Group (VCWG) is a part of the International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS), focused on enhancing the understanding and development of vegetation classification worldwide. Our mission is to connect ecologists working on vegetation classification at various levels – from local communities to global ecosystems – and to promote collaborative efforts in this field.

This website provides information about our initiatives, objectives, and events. We also plan to share recent publications by our members and publish blog posts related to vegetation classification.

Quick links

About Us

Aims and objectives, Steering Committee, and how to get involved.

News

All announcements in one place.

VCWG Newsletters

Regular updates from the working group.

Publications

Papers and outputs by VCWG members.

Blog Posts

Materials on vegetation classification by our members.

Vegetation Classification Seminars

Lecture series schedule, abstracts, and video links.

Recent news

• The fourth lecture of the Vegetation Classification Seminars will take place on 25 March 2026 at 14:00 UTC. Our speakers will be Wolfgang Willner and Don Faber-Langendoen, who will give a talk titled: “A proposal to catalogue and describe terrestrial ecosystems around the globe using the Braun-Blanquet and EcoVeg (International Vegetation Classification) approaches”.

• The third lecture of the Vegetation Classification Seminars will take place on 19 February 2026 at 14:00 UTC. The speaker will be Jozef Šibík, who will give a talk titled: “From peaks to permafrost: Vegetation classification in the Rocky Mountains and along the Dalton Highway, AK”.

• VCWG Newsletter 3 has been published

• The second lecture of the Vegetation Classification Seminars will take place on 28 January 2026 at 14:00 UTC. Our speaker will be Carlos Vila-Viçosa, who will give a talk titled: “From natural history to forest classification: biogeographic and evolutionary foundations of Mediterranean white oak forest”.

• The first lecture of the Vegetation Classification Seminars will take place on 3 December 2025 at 14:00 UTC. Our first speaker will be Prof. Javier Loidi, who will give a talk titled: “A proposal for a multi-level classification of the World’s terrestrial vegetation”.

• We are happy to announce the launch of a new activity – Vegetation Classification Seminars, an online lecture series featuring invited speakers who will present their perspectives on diverse topics related to vegetation classification

• VCWG Newsletter 2 has been published

• VCWG Newsletter 1 has been published

• We launch official VCWG groups on Facebook and Bluesky

All news can be found on the News page