This year’s Calpe Conference will be held from Thursday 4th July to Saturday 6th July. 

A statement from the Government follows below:

Since Darwin’s work on the Galapagos, islands have been seen as natural laboratories for the study  of evolution. The Atlantic Island archipelagoes of the Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, Canaries and  Cape Verde (collectively known as Macaronesia) have received less attention, but a growing body  of research is bringing their significance to the fore. Isolation from the mainland generated unique  floras and faunas in the archipelagoes and some unexpected exchanges between them. At the same  time, the mild climate generated by oceanic influence has made the islands reservoirs of plants and  animals that survived the glaciations.  

This oceanic influence has also had its effects on the proximate continental shores of south-west  Iberia and north-west Africa, where continental species survived the glaciations. These populations  included Tertiary plant relics, that vanished from the rest of the continent, and the Neanderthals,  who persisted on the shores of south-western Iberia longer than anywhere else on the planet. Fossil  evidence from Neanderthal contexts in caves at Gibraltar and south-west Portugal also indicates  that species of seabirds now extinct or restricted to the Atlantic Islands, once occupied the coastal  mainland. Humans arrived on the islands much later and it is becoming increasingly clear, from fossil  and archaeological evidence, that they were responsible for the extinction of unique island species.  With current concerns over global climate change, what lessons can we learn from these islands  and the continental margins facing them? 

This year’s Calpe Conference brings together leading experts to discuss these issues. The  conference will be held, for the first time, in July, from Thursday 4th to Saturday 6th. The change is  experimental and aimed at avoiding a busier time of year at the University of Gibraltar, where the  conference will be held. Persons wishing to attend may register via the Gibraltar National Museum  website https://www.gibmuseum.gi/ or by contacting the Calpe Conference Desk on +(350) 200  74289. Attendance is free for Gibraltar residents.