The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) is a partnership among governments, international organizations, and non-government organizations all around the world. Its goal is to preserve coral reefs and related ecosystems by implementing "Chapter 17 of Agenda 21", and other relevant agreements between cities and nations. The ICRI was originally initiated by the governments of Australia, France, Japan, Jamaica, the Philippines, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Over time, additional government and nongovernment partners have joined the original founders. Examples are the United Nations organizations, multilateral development banks, and environmental and developmental NGOs.
ICRI directly addresses one of the important issues identified in Chapter 17, Section 17.86 that calls on states to:
"identify marine ecosystems exhibiting high levels of biodiversity and productivity and other critical habitat areas and should provide necessary limitations on use of these areas, through, inter alia, designation of protected areas. Priority should be accorded, as appropriate, to: 1. Coral reef ecosystems; 2. Estuaries; 3. Temperate and tropical wetlands, including mangroves; 4. Seagrass beds; 5. Other spawning and nursery areas."
The International Coral Reef Initiative emerged out of the recognition that the coral reefs and related ecosystems found in tropical and sub-tropical regions are facing serious degradation, primarily due to anthropogenic stresses. Global estimations point that 19% of the Earth's coral reefs have already been seriously degraded and a that much greater percentage of coral reefs is under serious threat. Damaged or destroyed reefs can be found in more than 93 countries, with the coral reefs in South and Southeast Asia, East Africa and the Caribbean facing the greatest risk. It has been recognized that, if allowed to continue, this decline is likely to lead to the loss of most of the world's reef resources during the next century.
The ICRI founding partners have formed an ICRI Executive Planning Committee (EPC) to oversee the development and review of workshop agendas and ICRI products and to provide overall guidance for the conduct of the Initiative.