Monitoring

Monitoring of the Partnership Plan is important for:

  • Understanding whether the actions or projects the Plan is seeking to do are happening;
  • Understanding whether these actions are having an impact ‘on the ground’;
  • Identifying new or evolving issues which may need to be considered.

There are two key ways in which monitoring takes place:

  • State of the Park Reporting - the purpose of the State of the Park Report is to identify and seek to understand the issues affecting the National Park at the broadest level; its environment, its communities, its users. A Report is normally completed every 5 years, and in advance of a review of the Partnership Plan. It will seek to explore commonly known issues which need to be understood, as well as identifying new or emerging issues which may need to be addressed by the next Plan. The most recent State of the Park Report was undertaken in 2018. The next State of the Park Report will be completed in 2023;
  • Action/outcome monitoring – the purpose of Plan monitoring is to establish whether actions identified in the Plan are taking place, whether they are on time, and whether they are delivering what was intended. A challenge for the monitoring process is being able to establish links between action/outcome monitoring and the State of the Park. Given the number of variables effecting the State of the Park it can be difficult to establish a corelation between actions (e.g. the completion of a project) and outcome (i.e. a positive change ‘on the ground’). In some cases this can be achieved over the longer term, and/or through more detailed study or research.

Partners will work together to monitor the actions of the Plan on a regular basis, addressing through the Partnership Board any work necessary to understand a change in circumstances or address under-delivery. Partners will also support the preparation of the next State of the Park, providing data as well as specialist interpretation and advice. An annex to the Partnership Plan setting out the monitoring framework, annual action monitoring, and the most recent State of the Park Report, are all published on this web site.

Previous Progress Reports and State of the Park

The Annual Progress Reports enable us to monitor whether actions or projects are coming forward. We also periodically carry out a State of the Park Report. The most recent was published in 2017 State of the Park 2017 – this report gives us an understanding of the state of the National Park; identifying issues, informing priorities, and helping us to see the impact of everyone’s work.