The CAPES-COFECUB, which funds academic exchanges between Brazil and France, is the oldest Brazilian international exchange program. A conference was organized by UFPE in Recife (May 19-21, 2019) for the 40 years of this program. Participated to the event, among other, the French Ambassador in Brazil, the Directors of the CAPES and COFECUB, the Presidents of Brazilian and French universities, representatives of the French Ministries of Research and of Foreign Affairs. The TAPIOCA group obtained a CAPES-COFECUB project in 2018: Tropical marine spatial planning – SMAC 2018-2021. The SMAC project funds exchanges of Professors and the grants of various students that are in co-badging between UFPE or UFRPE and French Universities (Alex Lira, Gabriela Figueiredo, Ramilla Assunção and Julio Gonzales). Flavia Lucena-Frédou and Arnaud Bertrand presented the advances of this Project.