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Any process that involves the planning and implementation of actions to achieve desired goals andobjectives must include an element of monitoring of outcomes and impacts, which can then guide anyneeded changes to the plan and its execution.9.1 What needs to be monitored?The Guidelines point to a broad range of topics(biodiversity, social and economic conditions, tourismperformance) that should or could be the subjectof monitoring. However, they do not provide anyspecificity or prioritization. Baseline information obtainedat the outset should inform the monitoringprocess and be used to measure change, see Section4 of this manual.It is important to distinguish between the monitoringof outputs, outcomes and impacts. Outputs are actionstaken as part of the management process. Monitoringoutputs may be seen as monitoring progresstowards effective planning and management in linewith the Guidelines. Actions taken should be recordedand reported. Priority topics include, for example:✤Establishment of stakeholder structures and levelsof engagement✤Progress with investigation, completion and disseminationof plans✤Number of tourism development projects assessedand decisions taken✤Management actions takenOutcomes are responses to the actions and relateto meeting overall goals and objectives. Monitoringoutputs requires a process of obtaining feedbackfrom stakeholders directly or indirectly involved.Priority topics include, for example:✤Conditions placed on projects, monitoring forlevels of compliance✤Levels of participation in actions and any resultsobtained✤Percentage of tourism businesses undertakingenvironmental management✤Revenue raised from business and visitors tosupport conservation✤Level of engagement of local community in tourismand awareness of value of biodiversity✤Increase in designated protected areaImpacts are consequential environmental or socio-economicchanges, which relate to overarchinggoals and may be long term. Monitoring impacts canbe more difficult, especially in terms of establishingcausality by linking back to actions, but the prioritytask is to keep abreast of any changes in the state ofbiodiversity and other matters of environmental orsocio-economic concern. Priority topics include, forexample:✤Biodiversity condition – population trend of keyspecies, area of habitat lost or restored✤Change in threat levels to biodiversity✤Visitor numbers, length of stay and spend✤Tourism business occupancy and performance✤Local income and employment from sustainabletourism activities9.2 The monitoring and reporting processMonitoring should be designed and implementedas a participatory process, coordinated by themulti-stakeholder group responsible for sustainabletourism planning. Government bodies, tourismbusinesses, NGOs, community groups and visitorsshould be engaged in monitoring and reporting. Recentdevelopers should report on their compliancewith conditions specified in the approval processand on the related state of biodiversity of the site,natural feature or ecosystem.A set of indicators should be identified that reflectthe topics listed above. In principle it is better tohave a small number of indicators that work wellthan a larger number that are difficult to monitor.Indicators should be relevant to the topic, feasibleto monitor cost-effectively with credible data, clearand understandable, and comparable over time. Aconsiderable amount of thinking has gone into thedevelopment of indicators for tourism, 89 and indicatorsfor biodiversity. 90 Ideally, indicators should beagreed at an early stage in the planning, assessmentand management process of any tourism developmentor project.Monitoring should be a continuous process, withminimum annual reporting on the main indicators. Itis often also a challenge to determine effective andefficient means of verification to collect data for thedifferent indicators identified. Existing data sources,dedicated surveys (of visitors, businesses and the localcommunity) and systematic observation should beused. 91 The results should be publically available andactively disseminated through a reporting process.Tourism Supporting Biodiversity 41