Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation

The reports on the third in a series of conferences funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's, Known, Unknown and Unknowable program. The purpose of the conference was to explore two main aspects of marine biodiversity in the near (2020) future: (a) projections on anthropogenic drivers and (b)projections on impacts on marine biodiversity.

This report covers the second conference supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Known, Unknown and Unknowable Program. The conference goal is to explore the structure and limits to knowledge of marine ecosystems and implications of the state of our knowledge to research, policy and society at large.

This conference highlighted the importance of understanding past ecosystems and how they have changed, and asked how we can make use of this historical perspective to better understand the present and to safeguard and manage to future.

Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's, Known, Unknown and Unknowable project. This is the first in a series of three conferences held at Scripps Institution of Oceanography to explore the structure and knowledge of marine systems. The report describes how the conference was organized and the results of the conference.

The opening conference to launch the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation (CMBC) at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) was held 25-27 May 2001. The goal of the conference was to identify priorities in the study of marine biodiversity and conservation, announce the establishment of the Center, and solicit ideas for its future development. Invited participants and guests hailed from a diversity of disciplines and institutions from the social, physical and biological sciences, national and local academic institutions, national and international governmental institutions, NGO's, and industry. The agenda featured plenary addresses, which were open to the public, followed by a graduate student poster session and four panel discussions. We asked all participants to be their most challenging and provocative.

Several themes emerged from the conference for which there was universal agreement. First, this is the time to tackle problems affecting marine biodiversity, and SIO is an ideal institution to support these activities. Second, the scale and the urgency of the problems require a bold approach in order to truly make a difference. Third, the need for natural and social scientists to work side by side was a recurrent message. Many participants urged CMBC to go beyond classic marine science curricula and incorporate law, policy, socioeconomics, and communication courses. Such a graduate program is not offered in any academic institution worldwide, and CMBC was urged to establish that kind of program as soon as possible.

In conclusion, the participants viewed CMBC as a tremendous opportunity to make a difference in the study and conservation of marine biodiversity, by using good, interdisciplinary science as an essential tool to understand and conserve marine biodiversity, and by training the future (first) generation of scientists with broad expertise in marine biodiversity and conservation as well as effective communication skills.