The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) is one of the leading authorities in the fight for coral reef presevation.  This organisation operates through regional bodies around the globe and is well recognised by governments and NGO's alike for experise in this regard.

The International Community responded to alarm calls on the status of coral reefs in early 1990 with major initiatives. The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) was catalysed by the USA in 1994 and now has the participation of Australia, France, Jamaica, Japan, the Philippines, Sweden, UK, and major agencies like UNEP, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO), the World Bank, ICLARM (The WorldFish Center), and SPREP (South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme). ICRI has consulted over 100 countries to catalogue their concerns, requirements, and ideas, and to document their actions to conserve reef resources, and has developed a major strategy that has been endorsed by over 80 countries - the ICRI Call to Action and Framework for Action.

ICRI is operationalised at the regional level through the Regional Seas Programmes of UNEP. In this context, the Regional Co-ordinating Unit of UNEP in Kingston, Jamaica (UNEP-CAR/RCU) for the Caribbean Environment Programme was designated by governments and organizations at the ICRI Regional Workshop (Montego Bay, 5-8 July 1995) to serve as the contact point for ICRI in the Wider Caribbean Region.

The participants of the International Tropical Marine Ecosystems management Symposium (ITMEMS) in 1998 reviewed the 1995 ICRI Call to Action and Framework for Action and reaffirmed their relevance and importance.  In their Renewed Call to Action, they called upon governments, United Nations agencies, bilateral and multilateral financial institutions, scientists, NGOs, local communities and the private sector to implement the Call to Action and the Framework for Action, taking into account the Renewed Call to Action and working group priority Actions produced at ITMEMS.  Further, they called upon the global community to recommit to urgent action to address the threats to coral reefs and tropical marine ecosystems.  The International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN), a practical component of the Framework for Action, is a public-private response to the International Coral Reef Initiative's (ICRI) Call to Action to protect coral reefs worldwide.  ICRAN is a strategic alliance focussing on the management needs of the world's coral reefs and their relationship to the communities that depend upon them.   ICRAN focuses on their main objectives: coral reef management, assessment and education.