The primary purpose of a watershed management plan is to guide watershed coordinators, resource managers, policy makers, and community organizations to restore and protect the resources water, biomass, soil, energy and human in a given watershed. A watershed management plan is a toolbox for dynamical planning, implementing and monitoring watershed management actions; they are also “living documents”, meaning that as conditions change over time in a  watershed, the plan must be re‐examined and revised to reflect goals that have been achieved or not met.
Watershed management plans are not standardised, but reflect needs and demands of the different environmental, cultural, and socio‐economic conditions.
 
The following example of a watershed management plan has been drafted in a catchment area of the Nyambene Hills in Kenya.

Content:

• physio‐geographical introduction
• socio‐economical settings
• hydro‐meteorological settings
• situation analysis
• proposed management options 
• financial plan
• management monitoring and evaluation