Meetings Other Relevant Events
The conference is intended to be a forum for discussing research on animal biodiversity and wildlife management in the insular Caribbean region. It represents a unique opportunity to bring together researchers and conservationists from various horizons. The program will include plenary talks by invited speakers, thematic and general sessions on the study and conservation of the Caribbean fauna plus two special symposia:
The 2017 hurricane season was the worst on record for the Caribbean, and climate change models predict that the intensity and frequency of tropical storms will increase. This and the effects of climate-driven sea level rise are not modelled events predicted to occur sometime in the future- they are happening now and are already having a huge impact on both our economies and biodiversity. While increasing the resilience of infrastructure and economies to the effects of climate change is forefront in decisions makers minds, the benefits of healthy coastal ecosystems in terms of improving the resilience of our islands is often overlooked. Local coastal ecosystems, such as coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangroves have the potential to reduce climate change impacts, but these ecosystems are often undervalued. In particular, the importance of biodiversity for both the maintenance of ecosystem services and the recovery of communities to perturbations deserves further attention. This symposium will bring together researchers, conservationists and natural resource managers to share and discuss ideas and methods that build coastal resiliency and raise public awareness of the importance of our coastal ecosystems. We also welcome abstracts that focus on the resiliency of coastal ecosystems to the recent influx of sargassum and methods that have been implemented to effectively lessen its negative effects.