IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONVENTION
The Convention has met on 10 occasions and made 267 formal decisions covering wetland policy, management and threat abatement, technical tools including wetland inventory, assessment and monitoring, communication and education, and measures to improve the effectiveness of the Convention's operations, and the conservation and management activities implemented by the Contracting Parties. The latter is an important and often misunderstood facet of the Convention; implementation of the Convention occurs through national policies and actions. While the Secretariat of the Convention is responsible for the administration of the Convention it is not responsible for national implementation, although it may facilitate agreed activities with national agencies and others (Gardner and Davidson, 2011).
The Contracting Parties formally report to the Convention through National Reports that are submitted before the triennial Conference of Parties (COP). The information from these Reports is tabled at the COP, and, when combined with the documentation that supports the 267 formal decisions, provides a considerable resource base for