For most official meetings of the CMS Family instruments, a report will be prepared by the Secretariat or Coordinating Unit concerned and published on its website. Meeting reports should be carefully reviewed. However, the report might take some time to be completed, and NFPs should therefore not wait for the report to be published before initiating follow-up action.
As an immediate follow-up, even before the publishing of the report, Member States should begin the effective implementation of the decisions taken at the meeting. In the case of the CMS COP, the first draft of the report is produced in daily sections and the Resolutions adopted appear on the CMS website shortly after the COP is over, as soon as final editing is complete and translations into the other official languages have been done.
The CMS allows Parties to enter reservations regarding the protection afforded to species listed on the Appendices. Changes to the Appendices take effect 90 days after the COP adopted them and Parties have this period in which to lodge their objection with the Depositary (the Government of Germany). Similarly, Parties to AEWA have 90 days in which to notify the Depositary (the Government of the Netherlands) of any reservations they wish to make to changes to the annexes to the Agreement. The First Meeting of Signatories to the Sharks MOU adopted a procedure for modifying the species list (Annex 1).
To ensure timely and comprehensive implementation of the decisions taken at the meeting, the outcomes should be communicated to the relevant authorities at the national level during or directly following the meeting. It is also important to involve other ministries and agencies if they will be involved in the implementation of decisions. For instance, one outcome could be the need for amendments to the text of relevant legislation such as planning regulations and fisheries legislation.