40th Meeting of the Ramsar Standing Committee

DOC. SC40-7, rev. 1

Current status of the Reserve Fund

1.      The Reserve Fund (established by Resolution VI.17, 1996) comprises excess/deficit funds from each year’s core budget to be used to meet unforeseen and unavoidable expenditures. The resources kept in the Reserve Fund are limited to a maximum of 1/12th of the core budget of the current fiscal year. The Fund is to be administered by the Secretary General under the guidance of the Subgroup on Finance as established by the Standing Committee.

2.      In Resolution X.2 (2008), para 21, the Contracting Parties requested the Secretary General to report to the Standing Committee on the status of the Reserve Fund and consult with the Standing Committee regarding the use of any excess resources of the Fund.

3.      At 31 December 2007 the Fund stood at CHF 485,000, CHF 131,000 above the maximum. At 31 December 2008 the Reserve Fund per the final draft of the audited financial statements for 2008 was 423,000 but should be no greater than 1/12th of CHF 4,365,000, i.e. CHF 364,000. The Secretary General has requested that CHF 59,000 of the Reserve be released and recommends allocation as follows:

• First, to cover the deficit of CHF 34,000 on the COP10 project.
• Secondly, to establish a project to provide a CHF 15,000 to finance ad hoc legal work that the Secretariat urgently needs to support its core and project activities.
• Thirdly, to provide CHF 10,000 to top up the fund for Ramsar Advisory Missions.