XVI Annual Meeting of the Trilateral Committee for Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation and Management

An invitation for the GoM LME project to participate in this meeting came from the Mexican government to report on the large marine ecosystem initiative currently being developed in the region. The meeting took place at the Misión de los Angeles Hotel, Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico. Over thirty organizations from the three countries including federal and state government agencies, research and academic institutions,
non-governmental organizations, and private industry participated in the Trilateral Committee.

There was room for presentations in plenary sessions as well as for five individual work table sessions which were structured as follows:

1. Executive table
2. Law enforcement table
3. Ecosystem conservation table
4. Migratory birds table
5. Species of common concern table

Each work table had the mandate of reviewing progress made from last year’s meeting and report on current items for the 2011-2012 period.

The GoM LME Project participated in the Ecosystem Conservation table and reported on marine and coastal ecosystem connectivity issues along the Gulf of Mexico Large Marine Ecosystem. The intervention focused on showing that depletion and impacts on living marine resources and ecosystems affect the countries that share the Gulf of Mexico given that many of these resources are shared, migratory, or connected via egg or larval transport.

Stress was placed on the fact that tight and complex environmental, social, economic, and physical connections in terms of causes and effects are evident along the region and that a Large Marine Ecosystem-wide, ecosystembased approach is required for an effective management in the long run.

A brief overview of the pilot projects and their integrated approach was also presented. The main outcomes of the conservation and biodiversity component were introduced through a schematic model of how the project aims to achieve these results.

Finally, comments were made regarding the synergies that the project is building towards the Gulf of Mexico Summit to be held in December 2011. Links with key stakeholders were established and further work will focus on building upon inputs for the next Trilateral Meeting in 2012.