Micronesia Challenge - What is it?

In 2006, the leaders of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Palau, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islandsd committed to effectively conserve at least 30% of the near-shore marine resources and 20% of the terrestrial resources across Micronesia by 2020.

We now see many of these types of commitments globally but at the time it was made it was,  and still is, globally significant as it was a high level political commitment made by heads of government, and directly addressed the frustration at the lack of engagement of political leaders in conservation related efforts across the region.

The Micronesia Challenge was inspired by a political commitment made by Fiji during the Mauritius International Meeting in 2005 and has since inspired and learnt from other similar initiatives including the Caribbean Challenge Initiative and Aloha+Challenge to name a few - all are connected through the Global Island Partnership.