Sri Lanka to host International Mangrove Conference in July

MMM is an international conference on mangrove ecosystems that is held every six years.  MMM is organised by mangrove scientists world-wide, every six years, i.e. at an interval that allows scientific innovation.  It is not aiming at massive attendance but at single sessions covering various topics, with plenty of time for discussion in each of them.  

The International Meeting on Mangrove ecology, functioning and Management,  MMM3 will be held in Sri Lanka this year from 2 till 6 July. The University of Ruhuna organizes this event in collaboration with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute. 

The inauguration of the conference has been scheduled on 2 July from 9a.m. onwards at Koggala Beach Hotel with the participation of experts in the field. 

There will be a mid-week workshop (9 to 13 July) in the Pambala-Chilaw Lagoon complex (Sri Lanka) at the premises of the Small Fishers Federation of Lanka in Pambala-Kakkapalliya.

As this is the third time of conducting this important international conference, it has been named as MMM3.  It was initially held as MMM in Mombasa (Kenya), 7 to 11 September 2000.  Six years later MMM2 held in Coolangatta (Australia), 25 to 30 June 2006, where it was decided that the meaning of the MMM could be opened up in order to continue this conference as the first global recurrent conference on mangrove ecosystems.  

The conference is usually accompanied by a mid-conference excursion and followed by a mid-week workshop in a mangrove site aiming at identifying research gaps through joint-fieldwork, analyses and brainstorming.

The organisers thoroughly believe that the suggestions and decisions taken through this international conference will lead to development in the field and influence national and international policy decisions.