The 72nd GCFI conference in Punta Cana, Nov 4-8 2019

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TBTI is holding an afternoon session on the closing day of the GCFI conference (Nov 8). Scroll down for details!

The 72nd GCFI Conference will focus on scaling up public-private government partnerships for sustainable fisheries and innovative science.

Abstract submission deadline: August 15

Registration deadline (early bird): September 30

The conference will be hosted by GCFI in partnership with the Dominican Council for Fisheries and Aquaculture (CODOPESCA – Spanish abbreviation), Fundación Grupo Punta Cana, and Reef Check Dominican Republic.

The 72nd annual conference of the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI) will be held at the Now Larimar in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic from 4–8 November 2019, under the theme Scaling up public-private government partnerships for sustainable fisheries and innovative science.

Public–private partnerships have been heavily promoted in the education, health, infrastructure, and community-development sectors to improve efficiency in the generation and performance of public services. This has also been the case in the conservation and fisheries sectors in which public, private, government and civil-society sectors are encouraging the use of partnerships to stimulate innovations that would otherwise be difficult to develop independently.

Bringing together diverse sectors is particularly useful to address specific issues requiring an effective approach for dealing with complex topics of national or global importance that require different fields of expertise. This is the case with fisheries in the Caribbean region which are increasingly facing natural and anthropogenic factors that impact their sustainability. Among them are the global challenges of providing enough sustainable seafood, meeting the growing and changing demand of fisheries products, development of coastal areas, increase in tourism, and the impact of natural events such as storms, influences of climate change, and regional issues like the sargassum influx.

Although much has been written in support of public–private partnerships as a mechanism by which to foster natural resources research and innovation, they are still underutilized and perhaps little understood. Therefore, the purpose of this session is to present experiences of the public, private, government and civil-society partnerships approach to generating innovation focused on sustainable fisheries and marine resources conservation. To address this theme we will bring together experts, academics, policymakers, managers, and relevant organizations interested in marine issues, natural resources, sustainable fisheries, and tourism.

The program includes technical sessions featuring oral and poster scholar presentations, workshops, a 'Cinefish' film festival, and many opportunities for students and fishers to participate at the conference.

Learn more about GCFI