Periodic monitoring of the status of natural resources is fundamental to generate adequate information for planning and policymaking towards their sustainable management. This paper provides an overview of the concepts, issues, and challenges that planners and policymakers face in designing natural resource and sustainability monitoring systems and using their outcome in the formulation of policies and intervention programs.
Using a conceptual framework based on the concept of resource management domains, the principles involved in various types of monitoring systems are outlined after a brief review of their objectives. This is followed by a description of necessary steps in implementing a monitoring system and possible flows of information and its use in various stages of decisionmaking. Identifying relevant issues in designing different types of natural resource monitoring, future challenges facing governments, academic institutions and donor agencies in developing sustainable monitoring systems are discussed. Presenting some leading research issues in improving the design and implementation of natural resource and sustainability monitoring, guidelines for evaluating their performances in meeting the objectives of improved policymaking and reduced natural resource degradation are also discussed. The paper concludes that a monitoring system which is simple, user-driven, based on existing institutional structures which increases the capacity for analysis and interpretation and has the commitment of relevant decisionmakers for using the information in policy design and program development is more likely to be sustainable and successful.
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