The announcement of the Micronesia Challenge in 2006 was the culmination of decades of work by Micronesian people and organizations to raise awareness and strengthen the capacity across this region to conserve and sustainably manage natural resources. In early 2006, the Chief Executives of each of the jurisdictions signed the Micronesia Challenge and presented it to the international community at a high level event at the 8th Conference of the Parties (COP8) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in March 2006 in Brazil. The decades of groundwork combined with the right timing and publicity at the COP8 created a moment when political leaders challenged each other to make this ambitious commitment. They were far more ambitious than even the Aichi Targets that would follow in 2011 (17% terrestrial and 10% marine by 2020). The fact that political leaders at the highest level and across the region committed to this target catalyzes both local implementation and international finance to conservation in Micronesia. Now the Micronesia Challenge has become an established institution, mainstreamed into government priorities and surviving turnover in administrations in every one of the five participating jurisdictions.