71st annual conference of the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute

The 71st annual conference of the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI) will be held in San Andres, Colombia from 5–9 November 2018. The meeting is being hosted by the Corporation for the Sustainable Development of the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina.

The conference will focus on applying fisheries and marine science to solve problems by bringing multiple users of ocean resources together to make informed and coordinated decisions for sustainable use of these resources. Addressing the issues of connectivity, fisheries management, conservation, and related issues at GCFI will aid in addressing critical marine resource issues within the Wider Caribbean Region.

The theme of the Conference is  “Tourism in the Caribbean: challenges for the management of fisheries and coral reef ecosystems of the region”. While tourism provides considerable economic benefits for many countries, regions and communities, its rapid expansion can also be responsible for adverse environmental, as well as socio-cultural, impact. Two areas of environmental impact of tourism are: pressure on natural resources and damage to ecosystems. Furthermore, it is now widely recognized not only that uncontrolled tourism expansion is likely to lead to environmental degradation, but also that environmental degradation, in turn, poses a serious threat to tourism activities.

For more information please visit https://www.gcfi.org/gcfi_71-conference