ATBC 2008 - Call for donation

Call for donation (Sponsorship awards)

Given its central position in the Guiana Shield, one of the major tropical “wilderness” regions of the world, and given its important pristine forest areas and natural wetlands, Suriname is a privileged territory for the study and conservation of tropical ecosystems. Research field stations established in the Guiana Shield make it particularly attractive region to scientists and students seeking a secure field base. Suriname’s capital city Paramaribo offers a comfortable and secure environment for the ATBC annual meeting in 2008. The meeting will be hosted by the Anton de Kom University of Suriname (AdeKUS).

The 2008 ATBC annual meeting in Suriname will facilitate the direct exchange of ideas between scientists from within the Guiana Shield region and from other countries, principally in North America and Europe, but also from across the tropics. It will thus provide young scientists based in the Guiana Shield region an opportunity to interact with senior scientists from abroad. Such interactions would be less likely to happen during international conferences held outside of the region. By inviting to Suriname all major stakeholders currently involved and publishing on the ecology and conservation of tropical ecosystems, we intend to create new, productive cross-continental and global links between scientists.

The meeting in Suriname will lead to a more intense exchange of ideas on research and conservation of Guianan ecosystems. A major outcome we expect from this conference is collaborative research between biologists, ecologists and conservationists within the Guiana Shield for the conservation of the regional tropical ecosystems.

Participants at the 5-day meeting - 4 days of sessions plus one day of field excursions - will focus on the wide variety of research and conservation programs that are being developed in the Guiana Shield region and elsewhere in both Northern and Southern counterparts. There will be opportunities to visits natural areas in the coastal zone and the more remote interior of Suriname.

We are thus inviting to this meeting a broad group of scientists and stakeholders from institutions and organizations based in the Guiana Shield and based elsewhere in the world. But we also want scientists and students from other Tropical Countries with Low Income (TCLI) to attend the meeting. Therefore, to facilitate their attendance, we reduced the fees by 50 % for them. We are now calling for donation and sponsorship. The fund will be used to support the registration fees for scientists from TCLI and the ADEKUS crew who is organizing the ATBC2008 meeting and the educational courses for students.

Contact : Pierre-Michel Forget, ATBC President and ATBC2008 Chairman. Sponsorship awards