Meeting on Mangrove ecology, functioning and Management
Galle, Sri Lanka, 2-6 July 2012
MMM is an international conference on mangrove ecosystems that is held every 6 years (every 3 years from MMM4 onwards). Although dealing with a variety of ecological themes, incl. flora, fauna, biogeochemical cycles and human impacts, this conference originally stood for the ‘International Meeting on Mangrove Macrobenthos’ and was organised by the Università degli Studi di Firenze (Italy) as MMM in Mombasa (Kenya), 7-11 September 2000. Six years later a consortium including Griffith University and University of Queensland organised ‘MMM2 : Mangrove Macrobenthos Meeting’ in Coolangatta (Australia), 25-30 June 2006, where it was decided that the meaning of the MMM could be opened up in order to continue this conference as the first global recurrent conference on mangrove ecosystems. Hence, the name for MMM3: Meeting on Mangrove ecology, functioning and Management. MMM is to be organised by mangrove scientists world-wide, every 6 years, i.e. at an interval that allows scientific innovation. It is not aiming at massive attendance but at single sessions covering various topics, with plenty of time for discussion in each of them. As a matter of fact, macrobenthos will still form a solid theme together with vegetation, trophic relationships, restoration and management issues, just like MMM1 and MMM2. The conference is usually accompanied by a mid-conference excursion and followed by a mid-week workshop in a mangrove site aiming at identifying research gaps through joint-fieldwork, analyses and brainstorming.
N.B. After MMM3, subsequent MMM conferences were organised: MMM4 in Florida (USA) in 2016 and MMM5 in Singapore in 2019. MMM6 will be organised in Colombia in 2023. For more information on MMM history you can contact Farid.Dahdouh-Guebas@ulb.be and/or read: Friess, D.A., F. Dahdouh-Guebas, B. Satyanarayana, S. Cannicci, S.C. Chua, N. Duke, I.C. Feller, Z. Jaafar, L.P. Jayatissa, N. Koedam, K.W. Krauss, S.Y. Lee, J.E. Mancera, R. Ruwa, M. Vannini & E.S. Yando, 2021. Scientific contributions of the Mangrove Macrobenthos and Management (MMM) conference series, 2000-2019. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 248: 106742. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2020.106742
The conference MMM3 : International Meeting on Mangrove ecology, functioning and Management is jointly organised by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), the University of Ruhuna (UoR) and the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), and will be held in Koggala Beach Hotel near the historic city of Galle, Sri Lanka, from 2 till 6 July 2012. It will be followed by a mid-week workshop (9-13 July 2012) in the Pambala-Chilaw Lagoon complex (Sri Lanka) at the premises of the Small Fishers Federation of Lanka in Pambala-Kakkapalliya.
Organising Committee
| Prof. Dr. Farid DAHDOUH-GUEBAS, Conference chair | Université Libre de Bruxelles – ULB & Vrije Universiteit Brussel – VUB, Brussels, Belgium |
| Prof. Dr. Loku Pulukkuttige JAYATISSA | University of Ruhuna – UoR, Matara, Sri Lanka |
| Dr. Jared O. BOSIRE | Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute – KMFRI, Mombasa, Kenya |
| Prof. Dr. Sanath HETTIARACHCHI | University of Ruhuna – UoR, Matara, Sri Lanka |
| Dr. James G. KAIRO | Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute – KMFRI, Mombasa, Kenya |
| Prof. Dr. Nico KOEDAM | Vrije Universiteit Brussel – VUB, Brussels, Belgium |
Scientific Committee
| Prof. Dr. Farid DAHDOUH-GUEBAS, Conference chair | Université Libre de Bruxelles & Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium |
| Prof. Dr. Uta BERGER | Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany |
| Dr. Marília CUNHA-LIGNON | National Institute for Space Research, São Jose dos Campos, Brazil |
| Prof. Dr. Ndongo DIN | University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon |
| Prof. Dr. Norman C. DUKE | University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia |
| Dr. Ilka C. FELLER | Smithsonian Institution, Edgewater, United States of America |
| Dr. François FROMARD | Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France |
| Prof. Dr. Mark HUXHAM | Napier University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom |
| Prof. Dr. Kandasamy KATHIRESAN | Annamalai University, Parangipettai, India |
| Prof. Dr. Joe S.Y. LEE | Griffith University, Gold Coast Southport, Australia |
| Prof. Dr. Victor RIVERA-MONROY | Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, United States of America |
| Prof. Dr. Patrik RÖNNBÄCK | Gotland University, Visby, Sweden |
| Prof. Dr. Martin SKOV | Bangor University, Menai Bridge – Anglesey, United Kingdom |
| Prof. Dr. Nora Fung-Yee TAM | City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China |
| Prof. Dr. Brad B. WALTERS | Mount Allison University, Sackville, Canada |
Timeline and Deadlines
| 30 June 2006 | Announcement of MMM3 2012 at MMM2 |
| 1 January 2009 | Start of practical MMM3 organisation |
| 2 July 2010 | Official launching of the MMM3 website |
| 1 January 2011 | Opening of registration and payment |
| 31 August 2011 | Deadline for early bird registration (reduced fees) |
| 31 August 2011 | First deadline for application for financial support and related abstract submission |
| 31 October 2011 | First notification about financial support (submitted in August 2011) and related abstract acceptance |
| 31 October 2011 | Second deadline for application for financial support and related abstract submission |
| 31 December 2011 | Deadline for receipt of abstracts |
|
15 January 2012 |
Second notification about financial support (submitted in October 2011) and related abstract acceptance |
| 25 January 2012 | Final notifications about abstract acceptance for other participants |
| 31 January 2012 | Deadline for normal registration (normal fees) |
| 31 January 2012 | Extended deadline for receipt of poster abstracts |
| 31 March 2012 | Notification of final list of participants to the MMM3 workshop |
| 30 April 2012 | Deadline for refund requests |
| 30 April 2012 | Final deadline for online registration and payments by bank transfer or credit card for international participants |
| 2-6 July 2012 | MMM3 Conference |
| 9-13 July 2012 | MMM3 Workshop |
| 31 August – 30 September 2012 | Processing of refunds |
| 20 September 2012 – 31 January 2013 | Period for official submission of manuscripts for publication in the MMM3 Conference Proceedings (see details and deadlines in communication by e-mail). For each manuscript the peer-review process, the submissions of revised versions and the editorial decisions will be dealt with independently from other manuscripts and without delay. Accepted papers will immediately receive a DOI. |
| Year 2013 | Finalisation of peer-review process of all papers. |
| Year 2014 | Final publication phase for the MMM3 Conference Proceedings |
| Second half of 2014 | Completion of photographic material and audio-video downloads |
MMM3 sponsorship
MMM3 : Meeting on Mangrove ecology, functioning and Management is grateful to the following institutions providing financial or material support (in alphabetic order) :
Inter Research Science Center – IR (Germany)
Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad – University Development Cooperation VLIR-UOS-funded
GREEN DYKE Project (Belgium/Sri Lanka)
National Institute for Business Management (Sri Lanka)
Small Fishers Federation of Lanka – SFFL/Sudeesa (Sri Lanka) |
Université Libre de Bruxelles – ULB (Belgium)
University of Ruhuna (Sri Lanka) |
Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee – VLIZ (Belgium)
Vrije Universiteit Brussel – VUB (Belgium)
MMM3 acknowledgement
MMM3 : Meeting on Mangrove ecology, functioning and Management is grateful to the above sponsors as well as to the following institutions and people for providing logistic support (in alphabetic order) :
K.M.A. Nilusha P. AMARAPALA (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
Mala AMARASINGHE (Best Student Presentation Jury Member)
K.G.D.C.K. ARIYADASA (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
Marc BALISTER (management of treasury and credit card payments, Financial Administration, Vrije Universiteit Brussel – VUB)
Saman CHANDANA (Local Organizing Committee, University of Ruhuna)
P.L.I.G.M. COORAY (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
W.L.D.P.A. DE ALWIS (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
Kumudu DE SILVA (Local Organizing Committee, University of Ruhuna)
W.G.D. DHARMARATNE (Dean, Faculty of Sciences, University of Ruhuna)
N.P. DISSANAYAKE (Local Organizing Committee, University of Ruhuna)
Ingrid DOBBELAERE (Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee – VLIZ)
K.L.G. Nadeera ERANTHI (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
Buddhika A. GINIGALGODAGE (MMM3 Conference Driver)
R.W. Sachini GUNASEKARA (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
B. Amali HANDUNPATHIRANA (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
M.M.M.U. HEMAPALA (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
Jagathi HEMMALI (Local Organizing Committee, University of Ruhuna)
U.I. JAYASINGHE (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
Sunanda KODIKARA (Local Organizing Committee, University of Ruhuna)
M.D. KOKILA (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
S. KULARATHNE (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
K. Sanduni MADARASINGHE (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
I. Madhu MADAWAN ARACHCHI (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
Susirith MENDIS (Vice-Chancellor, University of Ruhuna)
Todd E. MINCHINTON (Best Student Presentation Jury Member)
Nilanthi (Local Organizing Committee, University of Ruhuna)
Ulrich SAINT-PAUL (Best Student Presentation Jury Chairman)
U.N.G. SANJEEWANI (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
Gamini SENANAYAKE (Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Ruhuna)
P. Isurika SENARATNA (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
Tim SIERENS (Non-academic Staff Member, VUB)
Vincent SPIESSENS (VAT and fiscality, Financial Administration, Vrije Universiteit Brussel – VUB)
Alain VANDER ELST (Invoicing, Financial Administration, Vrije Universiteit Brussel – VUB)
W.P.C. Gayani WEERASINGHE (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
U. Shashini WELMILLAGE (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
A.A. WIJEWEERA (Student helper, University of Ruhuna)
K.A.S. Kanthi YAPA (Local organizing committee, University of Ruhuna)