41st meeting of the Standing Committee

CONVENTION ON WETLANDS (Ramsar, Iran, 1971)
41st Meeting of the Standing Committee
Kobuleti, Georgia, 26 April – 1 May 2010

DOC. SC41-9

Agenda item 8

Ramsar Secretariat non-Core requirements and activities 2010

Action requested: The Standing Committee is requested to note this report and advise the Secretary General as appropriate.

1.       On a cash basis, total voluntary contributions received fell from CHF 2,032,000 in 2008 to CHF 1,818,000 in 2009, of which the amounts coming from Contracting Parties fell from CHF 1,344,000 to 782,000. The amounts received from Danone increased from CHF 579,000 to CHF 874,000 due to significant contributions for the Danone “Ecoles de protection de l’eau” programmes. Attached is an analysis of all voluntary contributions for 2005-2009.

2.       Contracting Parties will recall that the Secretary General in October 2009 sent a request to all Parties to provide voluntary funding for a number of specific non-Core funded activities of the Convention and Secretariat, without which the third Strategic Plan of the Convention could and cannot be delivered. The response to this request was not as positive as was hoped. We had sought CHF 615,000 for key activities in 2009, including the Scientific and Technical Review Panel, the Small Grants Fund, Ramsar Advisory Missions, CEPA workshops, and World Wetlands Week. We received only CHF 208,000 from Contracting Parties with CHF 114,000 coming from Danone, as shown below, leaving us with underfunding on these activities of 46% as shown below:

Note: Excludes activities planned under the Wetlands for the Future, Swiss Grants for Africa and Danone funds, and smaller project activities.

3.       For 2010, 2011 and 2012 we anticipate the following needs for these specific areas:

Note: In addition to this we anticipate monies from to the USA (Wetlands for the Future and other regional support) and Switzerland (Swiss Grant for Africa) for our ongoing project activities and Danone Funds (CHF 430,000).

4.        The Standing Committee is invited to consider how they might help to meet these needs, taking into particular account the very significant demands of 2011 and 2012. The Secretariat would welcome suggested avenues to pursue and is ready to provide any necessary support and additional information, including detailed and tailored proposals for funding. The Secretariat expects to be able to expand and diversify sources of funding through the work of the Partnership Coordinator, working with the Contracting Parties and Ramsar partners.

 See PDF version for appended table