pte.1. Background -- pte.2. Eight steps of monitoring and evaluating the performance of marine spatial plans: -- Step.1. Identifying the Need for Monitoring and Evaluation and Prepare an Evaluation Plan -- Step.2. Identifying Measurable Objectives of the Marine Spatial Plan -- Step.4. Identifying indicators and targets of performance for Marine Spatial Management Actions -- Step.5. Establishing a Baseline for Selected Indicators -- Step. 6. Monitoring Indicators of Management Performance -- Step.7. Evaluating the Results of Performance Monitoring -- Step.8. Communicating the results of performance evaluation -- Using the results of performance monitoring and evaluatiion to adapt the next cycle of Marine Spatial Planing

This guide on performance monitoring and evaluation (evaluation) is intended for practitioners responsible for planning and managing marine areas. Practitioners are the managers and stakeholders who are responsible for designing, planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating marine management plans. While its focus is on the performance monitoring and evaluation of MSP, planners and managers should know how to incorporate monitoring and evaluation considerations into the MSP process from its very beginning, and not wait until a plan is completed before thinking about how to measure "success". Effective performance monitoring and evaluation is only possible when management objectives and expected outcomes are written in a way that is measurable, either quantitatively or qualitatively. This guide builds on the general approach and structure of the previous UNESCO's IOC guide, Marine Spatial Planning: a step-by-step approach toward ecosystem-based management (Ehler Douvere 2009) available at: www.unesco-ioc-marinesp.be. Similar in organization to the first MSP guide, this one presents a logical sequence of eight steps to monitoring and evaluating the performance of management plans (and their related management actions) that are important outputs of any MSP process.