The development of Reimaanlok, a national framework for the planning and establishment of community-based conservation areas in the Marshall Islands, is outlined. A team composed of international experts and local resource management professionals selected and modified an ecoregional planning approach, defined key concepts, selected conservation features and targets, compiled biogeographical information from scientific and local knowledge and carried out a national-level ecological gap assessment. Past development of community-based fisheries and conservation plans was reviewed and the lessons learned informed the development of a robust community-based planning process for the design and establishment of conservation areas on individual atolls, integrating ecosystem based management (EBM) theory, traditional knowledge and management, and the particular socio-economic needs of island communities. While specific geographic, historical, cultural and economic characteristics of the Marshall Islands have created a framework that is unique, several aspects of this process offer ideas for national strategic conservation planning in other Small Island Developing States where there is a paucity of scientific data, significant and increasing threats, and where decision-making about the use of natural resources occurs primarily at the local level. 1. Introduction and Background Coral reefs are degrading globally at an increasing rate [1, 2]; this is expected to worsen, as localized impacts including overfishing and land-based pollution are compounded by the array of impacts from climate change and ocean acidification [3, 4]. Few pristine reefs exist even now [5, 6], underpinning the conservation priority of such refuge reefs to enhance reef persistence in the future. Global efforts to mitigate the drivers of global climate change are crucial [7], but limiting localized impacts on reef ecosystems through improved resource management and conservation is essential for long-term adaptation [8–10]. Systematic conservation planning using spatial prioritization is becoming a widely used approach [11, 12] to identify representative networks of protected areas that will be resilient in the face of these increasing threats [13]. At the same time, in the Pacific Islands, centuries-old customary marine management was in decline but is now experiencing a “renaissance” in the form of community-based management [14]. In the face of global losses of biodiversity, the Marshall Islands retain some of the healthiest and most pristine coral reef systems anywhere in the world [15,
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