Data summarizing monitoring and evaluation for three European environmental policies in 9 cases across Europe

The data presented in this DiB article provide an overview of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) carried out for 3 European environmental policies (the Water Framework Directive, the Natura 2000 network of protected areas, and Agri-Environment Schemes implemented under the Common Agricultural Policy), as implemented in 9 cases (Catalonia (Spain), Estonia, Finland, Flanders (Belgium), Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Scotland (UK), Sweden). These data are derived from reports and documents about monitoring programs that were publicly-available online in 2017. The literature on M&E to support adaptive management structured the issues that have been extracted and summarized. The data is related to the research article entitled “Policy-driven monitoring and evaluation: does it support adaptive management of socio-ecological systems?” [Stem et al., 2005]. The information provides a first overview of monitoring and evaluation that has been implemented in response to key European environmental policies. It provides a structured overview that permits a comparison of cases and policies and can assist other scholars and practitioners working on monitoring and evaluation.


a b s t r a c t
The data presented in this DiB article provide an overview of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) carried out for 3 European environmental policies (the Water Framework Directive, the Natura 2000 network of protected areas, and Agri-Environment Schemes implemented under the Common Agricultural Policy), as implemented in 9 cases (Catalonia (Spain), Estonia, Finland, Flanders (Belgium), Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Scotland (UK), Sweden). These data are derived from reports and documents about monitoring programs that were publicly-available online in 2017. The literature on M&E to support adaptive management structured the issues that have been extracted and summarized. The data is related to the research article entitled "Policy-driven monitoring and evaluation: does it support adaptive management of socio-ecological systems?" [Stem et al., 2005]. The information provides a first overview of monitoring and evaluation that has been implemented in response to key European environmental policies. It provides a structured overview that permits a comparison of cases and policies and can assist other scholars and practitioners working on monitoring and evaluation.

Data
The dataset provided by this article allows an overview of key aspects of monitoring and evaluation carried out in 9 cases in response to 3 European environmental policies. M&E has been identified as an essential part of adaptive management [1]: therefore the information about M&E has been extracted and summarized in terms of attributes that can support adaptive management.
The data are provided in two supplementary files. Appendix A provides a list of the reports and documents from which the data are derived. For ease of reference these lists are separated firstly by each of the 9 cases, and then within each case are subdivided by each policy. Many of the sources are not academic papers, but reports published by government and state agencies: where possible we provide weblinks for ease of access. Appendix B lists of sets of tables summarizing the authors' summaries of aspects of M&E carried out for each policy within each case. Sets of tables describe firstly what is monitored, then describe how monitoring is carried out, and finally describe what is known about how monitoring information is used in evaluation. The summary judgements in these tables are derived from the authors' review and analysis of the documents provided in Appendix A.

Experimental design, materials, and methods
In early 2017, nine teams of co-authors agreed to collect information about policy-driven monitoring and evaluation in their country (or in their region, where environmental policy has been devolved). The three European policy areas were: the Water Framework Directive, Natura 2000 network of protected areas, and Agri-Environment Schemes under the Common Agricultural Policy. The nine cases were; Catalonia (Spain), Estonia, Finland, Flanders (Belgium), Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Scotland (UK), Sweden. In mid-2017 each team used major search engines (e.g. google) to search for any publicly available documentation about monitoring under each policy area in their region or country. To ensure all relevant documents were identified, authors also consulted experts from their networks: however, the study explicitly used only publicly-available documentation, even when participants, their institutions or other experts may have had "insider" or tacit knowledge of the practical implementation of monitoring of some schemes. The final set of documents is contained within the references list. They then documented policy-driven monitoring in their country or region, for all three policy areas, using a common template which is already available as supplementary information to Ref. [2]. The templates were filled in based on information available from publicly available documents, with references to these documents made for all statements within the completed templates. Please see below for a copy of the template which guided the expert review of the documents. The criteria in these table are derived from previously published work on monitoring and evaluation suitable for supporting adaptive management [3].

Acknowledgments
We thank the ALTER-Net High Impact Action for its financial support for the study that has led to this paper. ALTER-Net (http://www.alter-net.info/) is a network of partner institutes who research biodiversity and ecosystem services and inform policymakers and the public about these topics. The research time for KAW, KLB, KM and FH was funded by the Scottish Government Strategic Research Programme 2016e21. Research time for JP was funded by CREAF (Centre for Ecological Research and

Value of the data
The data provide the first overview of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) practices carried out by a selection European member states and regions, under 3 European environmental policies (the Water Framework Directive, the Natura 2000 network of protected areas, and Agri-Environment Schemes under the Common Agricultural Policy). The data permit comparison across cases as well as across policies, and so provide a baseline for comparative studies. The source of information used to describe monitoring in each case are provided, thus providing a baseline for researchers seeking more in-depth analyses.