SUME in Karlovac, Croatia
The third Regional Meeting of SUME was held in Karlovac, Croatia, during 23-25 April 2019, together with a General Meeting of European Sustainable Use Group (ESUG). We owe many thanks to Margarita Maruškić Kulaš for facilitating this event at Aquatika, a renowned freshwater aquarium, and to Viktor Šegrt, our country coordinator for Croatia who arranged the events.
Meetings were held in sessions during the three days, for which a full report with many linked papers is available. During the first session we were privileged to host His Excellency Andrew Dalgleish, the Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the Republic of Croatia, who kindly launched the Naturalliance.org multilingual network for global with local communication on conservation through sustainable use. Members of SUME and ESUG had cooperated to launch with 22 of the ultimately intended 45 languages.
On Wednesday 24 April 2019, SUME held the 5th meeting since its creation in 2014. Although this was its 3rd Regional Meeting, there were participants from all six non-polar continents. The Report of the Meeting includes links to papers which were presented.
Participants in the opening session also enjoyed a presentation by Dr Angela Andrade, the Chair of IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management. Four further talks showcased the Perdixnet project and other material on restoring farmland ecosystems, considered the conservation of aquatic ecosystems through angling, looked at opportunities for conservation networking through ecotourism, especially in Croatia, and enjoyed a presentation on a new network for falconry and conservation in the Americas.
On Wednesday 24 April there were also break-out sessions on the farming, aquatic and tourism topics introduced on the first day, and to consider opportunities to network for managing mammals by rural communities. Training to use the networking software was provided by its creator, Nick Casey of Anatrack, and there was a General Meeting for 2019 of European Sustainable Use Group.
After the meetings, a number of participants went on to Paris, where they attend the 7th Plenary of the International Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).