Join our growing global community

The Island-Ocean Connection Challenge (IOCC) is a collective effort for comprehensive change.

Challenge partners are committed to begin the holistic restoration of at least 40 globally significant island-ocean ecosystems, from ridge to reef, to benefit biodiversity, climate, and island communities by 2030.

The IOCC’s momentum and success are built on an ecosystem of partners across a full spectrum of diverse strengths and resources.

We embrace the need for a complement of contributions. Local island community champions and NGOs, practitioners, governments, and funders are just a few types of partners we seek to achieve the goals of the IOCC. This allows partners to leverage expertise, funding, and networks so that we can address the global crises impacting islands, oceans, and communities together.

You and the IOCC 

We want to engage NGOs seeking to make a bigger impact, researchers, governments from developed nations that can support developing projects, governments of developing nations willing to prioritize and bolster their communities, and, most importantly, local island champions whose guidance, understanding, and leadership best reflect the needs of their people and lands.

The benefits of joining the Island-Ocean Connection Challenge (IOCC)

Recognition highlighting and amplifying your commitment  on our site experience, in the press and so much more.

Connection, community, and contacts among organizations doing complementary work  .

Shared knowledge and expertise – a community of practice.  

Representation and advocacy for partners’ respective and shared priorities.

Scaling up impact locally and globally for islands, oceans, and communities.

FAQs

  • There is an application process that we are happy to walk you through.

    Fill out our inquiry form on this page and one of the founding partner organizations will be in touch to discuss alignment.

  • Each partner will make a unique pledge to the IOCC, committing skills and resources they have to contribute to island-ocean conservation. This will be memorialized in a pledge document and reflected on the IOCC website

    Partners will demonstrate progress towards the pledge they made when joining and provide annual reports outlining their commitments which will be shared with other IOCC members and the public.

    Partners contribute to the IOCC ecosystem by sharing their knowledge, considering joint resourcing efforts, and proactively fostering collaboration.

    Partners assume the role of IOCC ambassadors, sharing IOCC information with their networks and fostering meaningful connections between and among our growing ecosystems of partners.

    For partners already participating gin the IOCC, we ask that you provide brief annual reports and share their data to track success. The Steering Committee will work with partners to develop standardized monitoring across all projects and collate partner impacts into comprehensive reporting annually.

  • The Island-Ocean Connection Challenge Steering Committee makes the determination based on the criteria and information submitted within the application.

    The IOCC Steering Committee is comprised of senior leaders from our founding partner organizations (Island Conservation, Re:wild, Scripps Institution of Oceanography) and meets regularly to discuss potential projects.

    The IOCC Steering Committee evaluates potential projects based on what is most aligned with the conservation goals of the IOCC.

    The process take [XXX] time

    Please contact us using the form below for more information.

  • The Challenge calls for an ecosystem of partners across a full spectrum of diverse strengths, and resources – we recognize and embrace the need for a complement of contributions. Community champions, local NGOs, practitioners, researchers, governments and funders are just a handful of types of expertise and support that we seek to achieve the goals of the Challenge. We look forward to talking with you about the kinds of resources that you bring, and we will be working with partners to align resources across organizations and within geographic areas. We know that together we can increase scale, scope and pace in meaningful and significant ways.

  • TheIsland-Ocean Challenge (IOCC) aims to be truly global and is open to any island group that meets the criteria. If you have a project that helps to fill in a geography that is not yet represented, we are interested in discussing its inclusion.m description

  • The Challenge is intentionally aligned to complement, support, and integrate with several ongoing goals and efforts. We have intentionally aligned the Challenge timeline with decadal goals, like the UN Decade of Ocean Sciences and the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. The strategic cohesion of IOCC with other regional initiatives provides a great opportunity to accelerate and amplify the impact of the work. We are an ecosystem of partners with shared goals and multiple vantage points, all pulling in the same direction.

  • The IOCC focuses on holistic restoration, rewilding, and protection of island-ocean ecosystems. Suggested criteria for prospective projects can be provided upon request  but all IOCC projects will be supported by local island communities and include at least two of the following three components:

    Restore and Rewild– restoring ecosystem functions like land-sea nutrient flows through actions such as removing invasive species; reintroducing and/or attracting ‘connector’ wildlife species that live at the land-sea interface; recovering endemic and threatened species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species; restoring native vegetation.

    Protect– establishing or expanding marine and/or terrestrial protected areas; improving the management and health of established marine and/or terrestrial protected areas.

    Analyze/Measure– using traditional knowledge and modern tools like image-based ‘big data’ to transform our ability to learn across case studies; optimizing future management and restoration as nature-based solutions.

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