Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands 1st April 2025 – 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.
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 the CCMI’s Healthy Reefs Initiative.
Read more about CCMI’s research.
About CCMI
CCMI is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1998 to protect the future of coral reefs, envisioning a world with vibrant oceans and healthy coral reef ecosystems. We seek to be the Caribbean’s premier marine research institute by delivering cutting edge research, transforming conservation strategy and developing education programmes of excellence – discovering and promoting real solutions to declining ocean health. Our plan is to invigorate key species and understand key ocean processes that drive reef resilience. We support early career scientists who are INNOVATING ways to improve coral reef health. We are TRANSFORMING conservation strategy and work to inspire the CHANGE that is needed to achieve our mission. CCMI are PIONEERS in the region working to reverse the declines of coral reefs.
CCMI is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (ID# 22-3609293). CCMI is also a UK charity (#1104009) and Cayman Islands nonprofit (NP-03) with satellite offices in both the United Kingdom and on Grand Cayman. To deliver our mission, we also have a range of outstanding international partnerships and collaborators, all with a clear, simplistic goal to protect oceans for the future.
CCMI has a 2025 Candid. (formerly Guidestar) Platinum Seal of Transparency