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WHEATON PRECIOUS METALS INTERNATIONAL INVESTS IN CONSERVING CORAL REEFS IN CAYMAN

Wheaton Precious Metals International (WPMI) and the Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI) have been working together to safeguard the coral reefs of the Cayman Islands since 2024. Excitingly, 2025 marks the start of a new chapter of this collaboration with increased investment from WPMI to support coral reef conservation, scientific advancement, and environmental stewardship in the Cayman Islands.

WMPI’s commitment to CCMI as a Gold Corporate Navigator supports CCMI’s ongoing, critical work in the Cayman Islands across both research and education with local, regional, and even global implications. This funding underpins CCMI’s 26-year coral reef monitoring and associated community outreach programme, the Healthy Reefs campaign. CCMI’s Healthy Reefs efforts is building a data set that spans over a quarter century, closely monitoring reef health and potential changes with the aim of unlocking secrets of coral resiliency, connecting this information to real world applications that impact the people in the Cayman Islands. The Healthy Reefs community awareness component reaches over 75,000 people in Cayman and across the world every year to share important information with the community, raise awareness of climate change and the threats facing coral reefs, and encourage environmental stewardship in everyone’s daily lives.

In addition, CCMI and WPMI are partnering to launch the Wheaton Women in Ocean Science Award. This programme will identify and recruit individuals who raise the profile of women in marine sciences to CCMI’s Women in Ocean Science network, supporting the development of world-leading professional female scientists. The project will harness this expertise to pioneer research to help coral reefs survive and adapt to the climate-change threats impacts reefs across the world.

As a leading, female-led research institution, CCMI has an opportunity to advance women in ocean science while addressing the most pressing questions to help coral reefs survive, providing funding, facilities and collaboration, and creating a global community of alumni.

The programme will collectively find solutions to some of the greatest questions impacting the survival of coral reefs at a global scale, focusing on the most severe and urgent threat to reefs: climate change. WIOSA scholars will support CCMI’s mission to promote resilience of coral reefs through increased understanding of adaptation and acclimatisation.

“Wheaton Precious Metals International is committed to creating value for all our stakeholders, and that includes supporting community programming and environmental stewardship in regions where we live and operate,”

said Patrick Drouin, President and Chief Sustainability Officer of Wheaton Precious Metals International.

“Through our Community Investment Program, we’re excited to partner with the Central Caribbean Marine Institute in Cayman, where our company has a 20-year history. CCMI is truly a world-class organisation focused on ensuring a better understanding of the world’s reefs and local marine life.”

Sustainable financing of coral reef conservation has never been more essential as the pressures impacts coral health are felt on reefs around the world. With the impacts of climate change intensifying, now, more than ever, these reefs need our help. CCMI’s team researches solutions to support reef recovery and understand how we can help these reefs to survive and adapt through science-based action while inspiring and educating the next generation of ocean advocates and marine scientists.

CCMI is grateful for this partnership with WPMI and is excited to advance both research and environmental stewardship for the benefit of Little Cayman’s reefs and beyond for future generations.

Read more about the Women in Ocean Science programme.

Read about CCMI’s Healthy Reefs Initiative.