To hear some describe it, the World Conservation Congress is the Olympic Games, World Cup and Super Bowl of the world’s conservation community.

Let the games begin Thursday as more than 8,500 delegates from 194 countries convene in Honolulu for the premier conference of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Opening ceremonies are scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center and will feature remarks by U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, a performance by musician Jack Johnson and a cultural presentation with a cast of 130.

Afterward the gathering will switch to the Hawai‘i Convention Center, where the action will continue for 10 days of workshops, presentations, exhibits, debates and meetings.

The World Conservation Congress hasn’t even started, but is already claiming its first major victory: the creation of the world’s largest marine sanctuary.

President Barack Obama last week announced the quadrupling of the remote Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument and said he would travel to Hawaii this evening to address the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders and the East-West Sustainability Summit, gatherings that are among a handful of parallel conferences being held in conjunction with the IUCN event.

Organizers say one of the goals of the IUCN conference, held every four years, is to prod governments into taking significant and measurable conservation initiatives.

Officials were hoping the United States, as host, would set the tone, and Obama, who was instrumental in winning the 2016 IUCN meeting, came through.

“The best message of all is to lead by example,” said Robert Richmond, director of the University of Hawaii’s Kewalo Marine Laboratory and one of the most vocal supporters of the Papahanaumokuakea expansion. “This is bold action, and the hope is that it will lead to more.”

A last-minute surge in registrations has made this gathering the largest World Conservation Congress in the 70-year history of the IUCN. It will also be the largest environmental conference ever held in the U.S.

What’s more, organizers say this will be the largest assembly of environmental policymakers since the Paris climate agreement in December and the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in New York in September.

“That positions this congress to turn those agreements into actions,” said Chipper Wichman, director and CEO of the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kauai. “We can help change the course of our planet moving toward a tipping point and onto a turning point.”

Wichman, a key member of the IUCN Congress National Host Committee, said the event is sure to raise the level of public awareness about Hawaii’s environment and inspire the island conservation and scientific communities in new ways.

“There will be a new spotlight on Hawaii — there’s no question about it,” said Steven Lee Montgomery, an Oahu conservation biologist and delegate representing the Sierra Club.

Not only will Hawaii be a model for other areas, Montgomery said, but Hawaii conservationists can learn a great deal from their colleagues across the globe.

“It is a big deal,” Wichman said. “In fact, it is a huge deal for Hawaii.”

This will be the first time the IUCN Congress will be hosted by the United States, and the reality is many folks outside the conservation community in Hawaii haven’t heard of the Swiss-based organization.

What is the IUCN?

It’s probably best known as the keeper of the Red List, a compilation of the world’s species and their conservation status, ranking them from least concern to critically endangered.

In America the public focus primarily falls on the Endangered Species list, compiled by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

The IUCN World Conservation Congress has been held all over the world, the last one in Jeju, Korea, in 2012. Past conventions have been important for building support that led to landmark agreements such as the CITES treaty (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) in 1975, the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity and the 1971 Ramsar Convention on wetlands.

IUCN conferences have also served as a bellwether on environmental concerns, warning about the impact of insecticides in the 1950s, discussing impacts of climate change in the 1960s and advocating sustainable development in the 1970s.

In Hawaii, organizers say, six key motions are primarily identified for debate and action: on protected areas, biodiversity offsets, ocean governance, oil palm expansion, ecotourism and natural capital, which deals with water, food and other “ecosystem services.”

In addition, there are nearly 100 other motions delegates will weigh, ranging from the closing of domestic markets for ivory trade, protecting wild bats from culling projects, phasing out the use of lead in ammunition and strengthening the role of indigenous people in combating illegal wildlife trade.

Planned for the 400 members of the media covering the event are news conferences detailing reports and the latest findings on such topics as the status of the African elephant, ocean warming and balancing whale conservation with oil and gas development.

The event will be made up of two parts: the Forum and the Members Assembly.

The Forum, which takes place from Friday to Monday, is described as “the largest knowledge marketplace for conservation and sustainable development science, practice and innovation” and will feature more than 600 sessions addressing a multitude of topics, including several dozen focused on Hawaii and related issues.

The Members Assembly, from Tuesday to the final day, Sept. 10, is where IUCN’s member organizations decide on actions addressing what they consider the most pressing and often-controversial issues.

SOME 94 exhibitors will run booths on the convention’s first floor during the length of the event, including the National Whistleblower Center, Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, Korea National Park Service, BirdLife International and the Department of the Navy.

Nine pavilion areas will focus on specific themes: water, species conservation, protected planet, forest, oceans and islands, business and biodiversity, #NatureForAll, Hawaii-Pacific and the United States.

Previous IUCN assemblies have seen protesters, and the Honolulu Police Department says it expects them this time as well. The Honolulu Police Department’s Civil Affairs Unit will monitor any protesters and will afford them the right of free speech, said Assistant Chief Clayton Kau.

At least one group, World Can’t Wait-Hawai‘i, plans to protest “the horrors of military expansion in the Pacific” on Saturday morning in front of the convention center, according to the group’s website.