How a protected-area management plan is prepared: contents, stages, participation and review

A protected-area management plan is an approved document that sets out what management aims to achieve in a protected area over a stated period, the actions needed to get there, and the indicators used to measure performance. IUCN divides its preparation into a sequence of steps that starts with pre-planning and data gathering, moves through setting a vision and objectives and public consultation on a draft, and ends with monitoring and a decision to review. In Saudi Arabia, the Protected Areas Implementing Regulation requires each protected area's management team to prepare and update its plan, and the National Center for Wildlife (NCW) to approve it.

What is a protected-area management plan?

The IUCN guidelines describe the management plan as the product of the planning process: it documents the management approach, the decisions made and the basis for them, and guides future management. It should cover the entire protected area and explain what management is to achieve and the rationale behind its decisions.

The guidelines stress that management planning is a process, not an event that ends when the document is published: monitoring tests how effective the plan is, and its lessons either adjust the current plan or shape the next one. A management plan is usually accompanied by other plans that derive from it or support it, including:

• Operational plans: shorter-term plans, such as annual work plans, that set out how and when specific actions will be carried out.
• Zoning plans: the boundaries of zones that are managed in different ways, and how each zone is to be managed.
• Sectoral plans: plans for particular activities, such as interpretation, visitor management and species protection.
• Business plans: plans that help the protected area become more financially self-sufficient.

What goes into the plan?

The guidelines do not prescribe a standard format; a plan's content and structure should reflect the needs of the site, the purposes of its managers and the resources available. They do identify elements found in most plans, which may appear as separate headings, be combined or be split:

For complex, multi-purpose sites, some planners prefer to organise the objectives and actions into management programmes, such as biodiversity conservation, community conservation programmes, visitor facilities, administration, research and information, and evaluation and review.

The planning stages

The guidelines break the process into thirteen steps within a cycle of preparing, implementing, monitoring and reviewing the plan:

1. Pre-planning: the decision to prepare a plan, appointing the planning team, scoping the task and defining the process.
2. Data gathering, issue identification and consultation.
3. Evaluation of data and resource information.
4. Identification of constraints, opportunities and threats.
5. Developing the management vision and objectives.
6. Developing options for achieving the vision and objectives, including zoning.
7. Preparing a draft plan.
8. Public consultation on the draft.
9. Assessing submissions, revising the draft and producing the final plan, with a report on the consultation.
10. Approval of the plan.
11. Implementation.
12. Monitoring and evaluation.
13. The decision to review and update the plan, with accountability considerations.

The guidelines note that a strictly sequential process may not always work best; information gathering and evaluation often run at the same time, provided the overall framework is understood and followed. They recommend settling, at pre-planning and at the highest management level, the purpose and objectives of the area, the planning method, the audiences for the plan, and an interdisciplinary team with one person responsible for producing the plan. If preparation is contracted out, a written brief should be agreed with the contractor before work starts.

On timing, the guidelines state that preparing a plan for even a small site is rarely done in less than 12 months, and can take considerably longer where extensive consultation or complex issues are involved. They advise estimating costs and time at the outset, and taking the cost of implementing the plan into account so that what is planned matches what can realistically be delivered.

Stakeholder participation

The guidelines treat involving stakeholders in planning as standard good practice, naming local communities, user groups, local government officials, NGOs, commercial interests and the protected area's own staff. They distinguish several levels of participation:

• Informing: people receive information but have no opportunity to change the proposals.
• Consulting: views are sought and taken into account, but not necessarily acted upon.
• Deciding together: those affected take part in the final decision, within limits set by those initiating it.
• Acting together: shared decision-making and shared responsibility for implementation.
• Supporting independent community interests: communities set their own agendas and implement their decisions, with experts providing information and expertise.

For consultation on the draft, the guidelines suggest three months as a general minimum for public comment, and six months as a realistic minimum for large protected areas or complex issues. They recommend identifying all stakeholders, approaching them on the basis of equality and transparency, recording and considering every comment whether or not it is adopted, and reporting the results back to everyone who commented. A summary of comments and a consultation report can accompany the final plan.

The Convention on Biological Diversity's Programme of Work on Protected Areas calls for site-based planning through a highly participatory process involving indigenous and local communities and relevant stakeholders. In Saudi Arabia, the Protected Areas Implementing Regulation allows NCW to appoint a supervisory council for any protected area, including representatives of the Center, researchers, environmental associations and the surrounding local community (Article 5, paragraph 4). One example is the first supervisory council for the Ibex protected area in Howtat Bani Tamim and Al-Hariq, which NCW launched with the Riyadh Region Emirate in June 2024 to involve local communities and relevant parties in improving management.

Monitoring and review

Once the plan is approved and implementation is under way, monitoring and review provide the feedback loop: is the plan being implemented effectively, are the objectives being met, and what should change? The guidelines distinguish implementation monitoring, which checks whether planned work was done, from evaluating whether objectives are achieved; the latter is the more relevant test and requires specific, measurable objectives in the plan.

For this the guidelines refer to IUCN's framework for assessing management effectiveness, which tracks six elements: context, planning, inputs, process, outputs and outcomes. One of the most widely used tools built on that framework is the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT). It has a question on management planning with additional points on stakeholder involvement in planning, a way to integrate new developments during the life of the plan, and whether monitoring and evaluation results feed into management.

For a full review, the guidelines note that legislation often limits a plan to five, seven or ten years, and that the decision to revise should be taken early: about two years before the new plan is due in complex cases with extensive consultation, and at least 12 months before in simpler ones. Where a plan has no expiry date, they recommend reviewing it at least every ten years.

International commitments

At its seventh meeting (Kuala Lumpur, February 2004), the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the Programme of Work on Protected Areas in decision VII/28. Its Goal 1.4 is to substantially improve site-based protected-area planning and management, and the suggested activities for Parties include:

• A highly participatory planning process involving indigenous and local communities and relevant stakeholders.
• Measurable biodiversity conservation targets for each site.
• An analysis of threats and ways to address them, and of the site's opportunities to contribute to conservation and sustainable use.
• Developing or updating management plans built on this process.

The programme set 2012 as the target date for this, and Goal 4.2 set a target for evaluating management effectiveness. In December 2022 the Parties adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (decision 15/4), whose Target 3 calls for at least 30% of terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine areas to be effectively conserved and managed by 2030 through systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures.

Management plans in Saudi regulations

The Environmental Law, issued by Royal Decree M/165 of 19/11/1441 AH, devotes Chapter 6 to protected areas (Articles 29 to 32): protected areas are established by a Council of Ministers resolution on the competent authority's recommendation, no activity may take place inside them without a permit or licence, and the competent authority, in coordination with the Ministry of Interior, sets the rules for access and for grazing, ecotourism, research and similar uses. The Law does not address management plans; its Protected Areas Implementing Regulation does.

The Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture approved the Protected Areas Implementing Regulation by decision No. 67867/45/1443 dated 20/2/1443 AH, and it was published in Umm Al-Qura on 8 October 2021. It applies to all protected areas that NCW manages or supervises (Article 2). Its provisions on management plans include:

• NCW's tasks include preparing and implementing the management plan for the protected-area system (Article 3, paragraph 14).
• NCW defines protection zones in each protected area and the level of protection in each zone on the basis of scientific, technical and social studies, and sets the controls and requirements for activities in each zone (Article 5, paragraph 1).
• NCW appoints, by decision, a team of its staff to manage each protected area, setting out its powers, financial resources and decision-making mechanism (paragraph 2).
• The management team prepares and updates the protected area's management plan to achieve the sustainable development of wildlife, habitats and biodiversity; NCW approves it; and the plan sets out every aspect of management, including the protection zones (paragraph 3).
• Signs showing protection objectives and zones are installed, and facilities are built, in line with the management plan (paragraphs 5 and 6).
• On the basis of the management plan, NCW issues the requirements and controls for permitted activities in each protected area (paragraph 8).

Article 5 does not set a period for updating the plan. At system level, NCW launched the Protected Areas System Plan in September 2024 as a roadmap for creating and managing protected areas in the Kingdom, which then had 36 protected areas covering 18.1% of its land and 6.49% of its sea.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to prepare a protected-area management plan?

According to the IUCN guidelines, preparing a plan for even a small site rarely takes less than 12 months, and it can take considerably longer where extensive consultation or complex issues are involved.

How often should a management plan be reviewed?

Legislation often limits a plan to five, seven or ten years, and the IUCN guidelines recommend reviewing a plan at least every ten years. In Saudi Arabia, the Protected Areas Implementing Regulation requires the management team to prepare and update the plan; Article 5 sets no period for this.

Who approves a protected-area management plan in Saudi Arabia?

The protected area's management team prepares and updates the plan, and NCW approves it, for protected areas the Center manages or supervises (Articles 2 and 5 of the Regulation).

Is there a standard format for a management plan?

No. The IUCN guidelines state that there is no standard format and that a plan's content should reflect the needs of the site, its managers and the resources available. Most plans nevertheless include the elements listed in the table above.

What is the difference between a management plan and an annual work plan?

The management plan sets the vision, objectives and actions for the whole life of the plan. Operational plans, such as annual work plans, have a shorter time scale and set out how and when specific actions will be carried out.

The Rasmala team's experience

Rasmala's experts, independently or as consultants to leading international consultancies, have prepared strategies and integrated management plans for several Royal Reserves, as set out in the Royal Reserves guide.

How we can help

• Nature reserve management: management and operational plans, zoning and regulations, and management-effectiveness assessment.
• Environmental management and monitoring: monitoring indicators that measure whether a plan's objectives are being met.
• Nature and biodiversity conservation: the biodiversity baselines on which a reserve's description and evaluation are built.

Guide to the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) · Environmental monitoring in Saudi Arabia