The 9th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties

1. RECALLING the budgetary provisions established by Article 6, paragraphs 5 and 6, of the Convention;

2. ACKNOWLEDGING WITH APPRECIATION the prompt payment by the majority of Contracting Parties of their contributions to the core budget of the Convention, but NOTING WITH CONCERN that a number of Parties are significantly in arrears;

3. NOTING WITH GRATITUDE the additional financial contributions made by many Contracting Parties through their Ramsar Administrative Authorities and other agencies, including some development assistance agencies, and also the contributions made by non-governmental organizations and the private sector for activities undertaken by the Secretariat, including the following sources: [to be added in final draft version];

4. ACKNOWLEDGING ONCE MORE WITH APPRECIATION the effective financial and administrative services provided to the Secretariat by IUCN - The World Conservation Union; and

5. NOTING that Contracting Parties have been kept informed of the financial situation of the Convention Secretariat through the financial audited reports for fiscal years 2003 and 2004 and the reports of the Standing Committee meetings in 2003, 2004 and 2005 that have been circulated to Contracting Parties;

THE CONFERENCE OF THE CONTRACTING PARTIES

6. NOTES WITH PLEASURE that since Ramsar COP8 in 2002 the Secretariat has managed the Convention's funds prudently and efficiently, despite the problems with the overly optimistic income projections adopted at COP8 in Resolution VIII.27, and LOOKS FORWARD to seeing improved financial reporting arising from the new management arrangements with IUCN;

7. URGES the Secretary General, in managing the budget, to attempt to refill the Reserve Fund established by Resolution VI.17, which will also partly fulfil the need to have a prudent reserve in the unlikely event of the sudden dissolution of the Secretariat;

8. EXPRESSES ITS GRATITUDE to the Contracting Parties that have served in the Subgroup on Finance of the Standing Committee during the past triennium, and in particular to Canada, which acted as Chair of the Subgroup;

9. DECIDES that the Terms of Reference for the Financial Administration of the Convention contained in Annex 3 to Resolution 5.2 shall be applied in toto to the 2006-2008 triennium;

10. FURTHER DECIDES that the Subgroup on Finance, as established by Resolution VI.17, shall continue to operate under the aegis of the Standing Committee and with the roles and responsibilities specified in that Resolution;

11. APPROVES the budget for the 2006-2008 triennium as attached as Annex I to enable the implementation of the Strategic Plan of the Convention;

12. AUTHORISES the Standing Committee, with the advice of its Subgroup on Finance, to change budgetary allocations between budget lines in the light of significant positive or negative changes during the triennium to the rates of inflation and interest income projected in the budget;

13. DECIDES that the contribution of each Contracting Party to this budget shall be in accordance with the scale of assessments for the contribution of Member States to the United Nations budget as approved by the UN General Assembly for 2006 (Annex II) and yet to be approved for the years 2007 and 2008, except in the case of Contracting Parties which, in applying the UN scale, would make annual contributions to the Ramsar Convention budget of less than SFR 1,000, in which case the annual contribution shall be that amount. The difference between the assessed contribution for these Contracting Parties according to the UN scale and the minimum threshold of SFR 1,000 shall be allocated, when actual payments have been effected, to another budget line or lines of the core budget, on the advice of the Standing Committee's Subgroup on Finance. All other Contracting Parties will continue to be assessed in accordance with the UN scale of contributions as indicated in Annex II; and

14. CALLS UPON all Contracting Parties to pay their contributions promptly by 1 January of each year, URGES Contracting Parties in arrears to make a renewed effort to settle them as expeditiously as possible, and AGREES that the Standing Committee at its 34th meeting should consider options for dealing with Parties which are consistently in arrears with payments to the Convention, based on an analysis by the Secretary General of the practices in other conventions.

Annex I

Core budget 2006-2008
(Swiss francs)

Income

The forecast income for 2006-2008 represents a 4% increase per year, based on the COP8-budgeted income for 2005 (Resolution VIII.27 Annex I). The annual 4% increase encompasses an indexation of 1.5% to cover inflation for the budget lines concerning staff, administration and operating costs, and an indexation of 5% for budget lines concerning travel and subsistence costs (see the Comments column on the Expenditure chart on the next page).

* The forecast income and expenditure figures given here are lower than the COP8-approved figures as provided in the Expenditure table on the following page, and are those following budget adjustments determined by the 30th meeting of the Standing Committee (see also paragraph 6 of the Resolution).

** Items 1 and 2 of the income are calculated by applying the UN scale of assessments to the proposed expenditure (see next page), minus item 3 and 4 of the income. Nevertheless, in accordance with Resolution VII.28, the minimum to be paid by a Party is one thousand Swiss francs per year. At the time of COP9, for 80 developing countries and countries with economies in transition this is more than their percentage of contribution according to the UN scale. This creates the difference of income versus expenditure shown here. This additional amount, or portion thereof which is actually collected, shall be transferred to another budget line or lines of the core budget, on the advice of the Standing Committee's Subgroup on Finance.

Notes on income:

1. Annual contributions from Contracting Parties (see Annex II with the list of contributions for 2006).

2. Voluntary contribution by the United States of America, equivalent to 22% of the total amount to be paid by Contracting Parties.

3. The Swiss Government, in addition to paying its annual contributions, allows the Secretariat to retain for the Ramsar core budget the income tax that would have been owed by the non-Swiss Secretariat staff.

4. Interest earned on deposits of cash not immediately needed for disbursement.

Core budget 2006-2008

(Swiss francs)

Expenditure

Explanatory notes:

1 The IUCN Services costs for 2006-2008 are still to be negotiated; the Regional Initiatives budget line is dependent on the outcome of this negotiation.

2 The 2006 total salaries includes the new STRP Support staff position (delivered in 2003-2005 through the out-sourced STRP Support Service - budget line 2 b) in the 2005 COP8-approved budget).

3 Regional Initiatives allocations for 2006 only (see also [COP9 DR8]) are:

4 SFR 40,039 to be adjusted from 2007 & 2008.

5 Including interest and Swiss income tax rebate.

Annex II

Annual Contributions for the year 2006

(Note. For the fiscal years 2007 and 2008, see paragraph 12 of the Resolution)

For reasons of economy, this document is printed in a limited number, and will not be distributed at the meeting. Delegates are requested to bring their copies to the meeting and not to request additional copies.