The objective of monitoring and evaluation is to determine if the management plan and annual work plans effectively contribute to achieving the plan’s objectives and desired conditions for the protected area. Monitoring and evaluation tasks should focus on rare resources, on activities authorized by the protected area administration, or on basic information needs for the protected area administration. With plan implementation under way, monitoring will provide the feedback loop for evaluating the plan.
Evaluation will identify whether the plan is being implemented effectively, that is, whether the existing guidelines are effective and, ultimately, whether the overall objectives are being met. Monitoring will also allow observation of the impacts of management and evaluation will suggest changes to management actions accordingly. Where implementation runs into problems, monitoring and evaluation can be used to signal needs for re-deploying management resources to improve plan implementation.
Plan monitoring and evaluation should determine if key aspects of the plan are working as intended or if changes need to be made to the plan. Evaluation should help determine if existing guidelines are effective at ensuring the sustainability of activities and resources. Not everything can be monitored. The plan should indicate the kind and frequency of monitoring that will occur regarding priority issues. Based on priorities, key measures of success will need to be identified for which monitoring data can be collected, initially to establish base conditions and subsequently to establish changes.
Specific monitoring activities will depend on the objectives that have been identified for the protected area, and may include, but are not limited to:
Species of concern (sharks, rays, whales)
Coral reefs
Plant communities
Benefits attained by local communities
Human disturbances
Extent of hunting and fishing
Infrastructure impacts
Instream flows
External threats to the PA
As with plan implementation, subject monitoring actions to a prioritization process, as limited resources will prohibit monitoring as much as would be ideal. Focus efforts on monitoring aspects of the plan relating to the most pressing threats to, and needs of, the protected area to assess whether or not the plan has been effective at reducing the impacts of those threats.
Examples of monitoring questions and measures:
- Are specific management activities being implemented as described in the plan and the annual work plan? Possible measure: percent and types of activities that are actually implemented.
- Are specific species populations responding to management actions as anticipated in the plan? Possible measures: population size and trend.
- Is the plan providing for local community benefits as may be realized by association or from participation in protected area management? Possible measure: proportion of community revenue generated by protected area management.
- Are ecological systems being restored as provided by management actions? Possible measure: proportion of protected area with desired ecosystem conditions.
- Have management actions changed the quantity, quality, and spatial distribution of marine and other habitats, to help meet plan objectives? Possible measure: proportion and types of habitats suitable for desired species.
Predicting the optimal amount of time to spend learning before designating protected habitat for threatened species
Deciding when to protect threatened species habitat when complete knowledge about the habitat extent is uncertain is a common problem in conservation. More accurate habitat mapping improves conservation outcomes once that habitat is protected.
Rapid Assessment and Prioritization of Protected Area Management (RAPPAM) Methodology
Ervin, J. 2003. Rapid Assessment and Prioritization of Protected Area Management (RAPPAM) Methodology. WWF, Gland, Switzerland.
Review and Recommendations Regarding Human Activity Surveillance Technologies in Pacific Marine Protected Areas
The present study, commissioned by the French Agency for Biodiversity (Agence française pour la biodiversité, AFB), is part of the "Pacific Biodiversity Blue Belt" project.
Sea Turtle Monitoring Manual
This manual is not a summary of all that is known about sea turtles. There are already very good books and resources that do that. It is also not exhaustive about research and monitoring. Nor it is the global synthesis of all turtle research options.
SEM-PASIFIKA Socioeconomic Monitoring Guidelines for Coastal Managers in Pacific Island Countries
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Wongbusarakum, S., Pomeroy, B., 2008. |
Socioeconomic Fisheries Surveys in Pacific Islands: a Manual for the Collection of a Minimum Dataset
Kronen, M., Stacey, N., Holland, P., Magron, F., Power, M. 2007. Socioeconomic Fisheries Surveys in Pacific Islands: a Manual for the Collection of a Minimum Dataset. SPC, Noumea, New Caledonia.
Socioeconomic Manual for Coral Reef Management
Bunce, L. Townsley, P., Pomeroy, R., Pollnac, R. 2000. Socioeconomic Manual for Coral Reef Management. GCRMN, AIMS, Townsville, Australia.
The effects of protected areas on the ecological niches of birds and mammals
Protected areas are a cornerstone for biodiversity conservation, and typically support more natural and undisturbed habitats compared to unprotected lands. The effect of protected areas on intra-specific ecological niche has been rarely investigated.
The State of the World's Mangroves 2022
Healthy mangrove ecosystems are critical for global climate action – playing a key role in carbon storage and in building resilience to a rapidly warming world.
Thirty Years of Research on Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (1986–2016): Scientific Advances and Emerging Opportunities
Research on the coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS) has waxed and waned over the last few decades, mostly in response to population outbreaks at specific locations.
Towards the Quantification of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing in the Pacific Islands Region
Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a recognised global problem which undermines the integrity of responsible fisheries management arrangements and results in lost value to coastal states.
Tropical mammal functional diversity increases with productivity but decreases with anthropogenic disturbance
A variety of factors can affect the biodiversity of tropical mammal communities, but their relative importance and directionality remain uncertain.
Underwater Cards for Assessing Coral Health on Indo-Pacific Reefs
Beeden, R., Willis, B., Raymundo, L.J., Page, C.A., Weil, E.
Video - BIOPAMA grantees' voices: MELAD Kiribati
Experiences from the Kiribati Ministry of Environment, Lands and Agricultural Development regarding their medium grant under the EU-ACP BIOPAMA Action Component focusing on management interventions for the Kiritimati Island Conservation Protected Area.
