12.4.17 | ZMT’s alumni from the Americas recently held their regional conference in Santa Marta (Colombia). Hosted by the Universidad del Magdalena, the goal of the gathering was to contribute to the conservation and management of coastal ecosystems in the region and to establish a working line for the regional network.
Central conference topics therefore included sustainable fisheries, mangrove ecology, marine conservation and ecosystem services as well as marine pollution. The event was the second regional conference of the ZMT’s alumni network following the first ZMT regional alumni workshop on Zanzibar, Tanzania, in autumn 2016.
In the course of the workshop, thirty alumni from eleven countries reconnected with former fellows and colleagues, shared their expertise and identified and discussed potential collaborative research approaches. After one week of presentations, thematic group work and fruitful discussions, the workshop ended with a field visit to Tayrona National Park.
The overall objective of the event was to strengthen the regional “Western Hemisphere Alumni Network” and to foster the connections between the alumni and ZMT. Further Alumni conferences are now planned in Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa.
The conference was supported by funding of the DAAD.