The Annual meeting will be preceded by the LME: LEARN Project Meeting, to take place on 5 – 6 December 2016.   (until lunch time). The aim of this meeting is to convene three working groups of the project (governance, ecosystem-based management and data & information management) and to initiate work towards implementing respective project activities. This meeting will be attended by a limited group of participants (working group members and selected project managers). While working group membership is by invitation, other participants are welcome to attend sessions as observers.

The primary objective of the Annual meeting is to provide global forum for GEF-funded marine and coastal leaders and institutions, aimed at sharing experiences and lessons with respect to ecosystem-based governance. The LME Annual meeting contributes to the development of the LME Partnership by engaging marine, coastal, biodiversity and coastal climate change adaptation project leaders in meeting those objectives, in accordance with the recently established GEF: LME Learn project. More specifically, the meeting aims at:

• Fostering a mutually supportive global network of leaders and institutions engaged in marine and coastal ecosystem based management by providing a forum for project (i.e. LME, ICM, MPA, others) leaders to discuss experiences and lessons learned;
• Mobilizing knowledge resources, new scientific applications and tools to support project implementation and organizational action related to priority knowledge topics;
• Reviewing marine and coastal project progress in regions, disseminating best practices amongst projects, and discuss emerging issues requiring common responses
• And sharing lessons learned from existing efforts with regard to the LME Governance project priorities (i.e. regional networks, capacity building training and twinning) and identify future priorities to help guide the LME: LEARN Project.

The meeting will also provide an opportunity to discuss the contribution of GEF marine projects to the implementation of the Agenda 2030, particularly SDG 14 as well as other SDGs, in light of the forthcoming UN Conference on SDG 14 implementation to take place in June 2017.

On the first day of the meeting, 3 parallel regional marine and coastal caucuses (Africa, Asia/Pacific Islands and Latin America/Caribbean) will take place for practitioners to interact and exchange information on work progress at regional level, as well as coordinate regional activities to be supported, in part, by LME: LEARN. The draft agenda outline is attached to this letter for information.

Additional information about the meeting will be posted in our website: www.ioc-unesco.org/18thLME

For further information, please contact Mr. Mish Hamid (m.hamid@unesco.org) or Mr. Ivica Trumbic (i.trumbic@unesco.org)