Scheme for Ecological Monitoring in National Parks and Protected Areas‪.‬

Introduction If parks and protected areas are to play their critical role in protecting biodiversity and ecological integrity, there must be an ongoing assessment of the state of the ecosystems under stewardship. The purpose of this paper is to describe the design of a monitoring scheme which could be used to assess the state of ecosystem integrity in national parks and protected areas. Monitoring and assessment are an integral part of the management of natural systems and thus part of a larger management system. In order to manage ecosystems in a natural state and ensure their ecological integrity, detailed monitoring and assessment of the state of the systems is a prerequisite. Monitoring implies regular or continuous assessment of one or more variables. It is a set of measures taken in a time series. Such measures are generally designed to provide information to: (1) understand; (2) detect changes; and (3) perhaps manage a system.