The 5th International Conference on Marine Mammal Protected Areas will evaluate the progress made over the last decade to meet ICMMPA’s long-standing goal of bringing the MMPA community closer together. A primary goal of this conference, held for the first time in the Mediterranean, is to focus on the challenges ahead to examine concrete and practical steps towards achieving effective place-based protection and management for marine mammals and to identify a path forward that will lead ICMMPA into its second decade.
The conference will feature interactive panels designed to allow participants to engage in discussions with speakers, focused workshop sessions to provide concrete outputs, training sessions, and additional opportunities to share the considerable and extensive expertise and experience of MMPA practitioners and those who guide, advise, and support the implementation of these initiatives. Special effort will be made to support conference participation not only from the Mediterranean and Europe, but also from previously underrepresented regions (e.g. Black Sea, Middle East, Red Sea and tropical Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean countries and islands of West Africa). The conference will build on initiatives generated from the past four conferences to advance our understanding of science, management, and effective biodiversity conservation in protected areas. In addition, the conference will provide updates on plans for the worldwide Important Marine Mammal Area (IMMA) initiative (marinemammalhabitat.org).