Monitoring is an essential tool to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of nature management for both policy makers and local managers. Within this context a concept and manual with practical instructions has been produced as tool for the planning and execution of future projects for the monitoring of the nature management in the Flanders’ nature reserves. The final objective is to come to a control system for the support and steering of the policy making and management of nature reserves. The concept and applied field protocols can be found in ‘Vademecum deel I&II: Concept beheermonitoring & Methodiek met technische bijlagen en multisoortenlijsten’ (De Cock et al. 2008). Except of setting up a framework to gather ecological data according to a tandardised methodology, this project also included a pilot study in which a first test monitoring round was conducted in 12 Flemish nature reserves in 2006. This report presents the preliminary analysis of the data that came forth of this test round. Directly related we present here initial methods for analysis by which a translation of the ecological data into distance-to-target scores to a certain aimed for nature type can be obtained. These scores allow to evaluate in what extent the targeted nature aims are reached, or even to signal if there is an evolution which calls for a reconsideration of the nature management. We choose to elaborate and illustrate the method for Calthion grasslands. First, because this nature type is of high importance to nature conservation as a “regional important biotope“, and secondly, because we had the highest number of samples available for this type. In the first part we describe in broad outline the reference of a good developed Calthion grassland. This is subsequently trabnslated into different distance-to-target variables by which scores can be calculated in order to compare the field situation with the reference. An important element is the overview of the fauna multispecies with a detailed reasoning about the ...