FEATURES
Paris Conference
Photo courtesy USD /
Biodiversity in Paris
MarBEF on the international stage
By Brian MacKenzie
THE GOVERNMENT OF FRANCE, on the initiative of President Jacques
Chirac, arranged a major global conference on Biodiversity, Science and
Governance in Paris during January 24-28, 2005. The objective of the
meeting was to assemble many of the w orlds experts on the science and
governance of biodiversity to discuss how to prevent and reverse further
losses of global biodiversity. Attendees at the meeting were scientists and
policy-m akers from governm ents, universities, non-governm ental
organisations and the private sector from around the world.
In to tal,
over
1,0 0 0 p e o p le p a rtic ip a te d ,
in clu d in g Dr. W angari M aathai (Kenya) w ho
received the 2004 N obel Peace Prize for her
c o n trib u tio n s to su sta in ab le d ev elo p m en t,
dem ocracy a n d peace. A full description of the
conference objectives a n d th e agenda for the
m ee tin g can be fo u n d a t th e co n feren ce
w e b site
(w w w .rech erc h eg o u v .fr/b io d iv 2 0 0 5
p a ris/e n /). A b o o k containing th e proceedings
of the conference w ill be p u b lish ed in early
2006.
T he
c o n fere n ce
in c lu d e d
several p le n u m
overview lectures a n d w o rk sh o p s on specific
S h o a l i n g f is h .
16
MarBEF N e w s le tte r
topics related to scientific a n d governance
aspects of biodiversity in terrestrial, freshw ater
an d m arine ecosystem s. O ne of the conference
w o rk s h o p s w as d e v o te d to “B iodiversity:
Challenges for Fisheries M anagem ent" a n d was
o rg a n ised by Jean B o u ch er (IFREMER,
F ran ce), O livier T h éb au d (IFREMER, F ran ce),
Philippe C ury (IRD, France) a n d Serge Garcia
(FAO, Italy). T he decisio n by conference
organisers to allocate an entire day at such a
high-level m eeting to fish biodiversity a n d the
role of fisheries m anagem ent indicates the
concern w ith in the scientific co m m u n ity and
am ong stakeholders for the future of fish
biodiversity a n d m ore generally the structure
a n d fu n c tio n in g o f m arin e ecosystem s.
W orkshop organisers invited 13 experts to
p re se n t th e ir view s a n d id eas on fish
biodiversity, how it is changing a n d w h at is ol­
ean be done to prev en t ad ditional losses.
Five of th e in v ite d sp e a k ers have stro n g
affiliations w ith MarBEF eith er as overall
p roject c oordinator (C. Fleip), as p articipants
w ith in one of the MarBEF R esponsive M ode
Projects (N. Dulvy, S. Jennings, B. MacKenzie)
or as a MarBEF end-user (K. Brander, ICES).
T he presen tatio n s by these five speakers, as
w ell as an overall sum m ary of the w o rk sh o p
conclusions, are re p ro d u ced in this issue of the
MarBEF Newsletter w ith perm ission of the
conference organisers a n d the pu b lish er of the
conference b o o k proceedings.
B rian R. M acK enzie
D anish In stitute for Fisheries Research
C harlo tten lu n d , D enm ark
Email: b rm @ dfu.m in.dk