World Conference on Marine Biodiversity 2026

The seventh edition of the World Conference on Marine Biodiversity will be held from November 17-20th 2026 (WCMB 2026) in Bruges, Belgium. The World Conference has always travelled, and after fifteen years, it will again be hosted in Europe. This edition’s local organizing institute is the Flanders Marine Institute. In the same tradition of previous editions, the 2026 World Conference on Marine Biodiversity will once again be a major assembly opportunity to share research outcomes, management and policy topics, offer a platform to discuss current as well as emerging marine biodiversity issues, and identify ways to protect and sustainably manage marine ecosystems and their resources. The conference will bring together scientists, practitioners and policy makers, aiming to discuss and advance our understanding of the importance, past, current and future state of marine biodiversity. The seventh edition of the World Conference will fly the UN Ocean Decade flag, as it has been endorsed as a UN Ocean Decade Event. The overall theme of the Conference is “The marine biodiversity insights we need, for the ocean we want”. As the Conference will take place a little over halfway through the UN Ocean Decade, it will provide an excellent opportunity to take stock of ongoing actions and initiatives, but also evaluate what still needs to be tackled by the end of the Decade.