The 5th International Marine Conservation Congress will be held on 24 - 29 of June, 2018 in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.
After the first (1997) and second (2001) Symposia on Marine Conservation Biology confirmed the large number of marine conservation biologists interested in furthering marine science, research and public policy, a group of marine professionals organized a formal society for marine conservation biology. After much discussion, this group accepted an invitation from the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) to become one of their ‘sections’. The SCB Marine Section now provides a home for marine conservation biology in order to further marine conservation science, research and public policy. The Section’s flagship meeting is the biennial International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC).
Previous IMCCs have been held in Washington D.C - USA (2009), Victoria - Canada (2011), Glasgow, UK (2014), and St. John’s - Canada (2016). IMCC5, to be held in Kuching - Malaysia (2018) will be the first iteration of the meeting to be held in a country defined by the World Bank as either “low income” or “middle income”. The SCB Marine Section very much hope this move will open the meeting up to more delegates from such countries, who have historically found it harder to attend IMCCs due to high travel and subsistence costs. We believe marine conservation can only be successful at a global scale when a truly global community is working together on marine conservation issues.