The Nature Conservancy has demonstrated that creating and investing in strategic networks of motivated individuals and organizations yields real conservation results—at multiple scales and at relatively low cost—by fostering collaboration and strong conservation leadership and skills. Micronesians in Island Conservation (MIC) is a peer-learning network created for conservation leaders in government and non-government organizations. The purpose of MIC is to strengthen leadership capacity to ensure effective management of local conservation organizations and agencies in order to sustain long-term conservation outcomes.

This is the first report written with the specific purpose of helping others around the world learn from and adapt MIC’s catalytic approach. The authors seek to capture and distill 10 years of rich experience, expertise, and insights of many key people in a way that is highly useful to others, for catalyzing conservation work on a grand scale. MIC’s story, a key set of lessons learned, and questions for practitioners to consider are presented for each of Boggs et al.’s (2007) “Standards and Good Practice for Designing and Operating Effective Networks.”