MMM is an international conference on mangrove ecosystems that is held every 6 years. Although dealing with a variety of ecological themes, incl. flora, fauna, biogeochemical cycles and human impacts, this conference originally stood for the ‘International Meeting on Mangrove Macrobenthos’ and was organised by the Università degli Studi di Firenze (Italy) as MMM in Mombasa (Kenya), 7-11 September 2000. Six years later a consortium including Griffith University and University of Queensland organised ‘MMM2 : Mangrove Macrobenthos Meeting’ in Coolangatta (Australia), 25-30 June 2006, where it was decided that the meaning of the MMM could be opened up in order to continue this conference as the first global recurrent conference on mangrove ecosystems. Hence, the name for MMM3: Meeting on Mangrove ecology, functioning and Management. MMM is to be organised by mangrove scientists world-wide, every 6 years, i.e. at an interval that allows scientific innovation. It is not aiming at massive attendance but at single sessions covering various topics, with plenty of time for discussion in each of them. The conference is usually accompanied by a mid-conference excursion and followed by mid-week workshop in a mangrove site aiming at identifying research gaps through joint-fieldwork, analyses and brainstorming.