PCRIC showcases its innovative products for marine ecosystems

As part of PCRIC’s ongoing partnership with the World Bank and program of knowledge exchange with the other regional risk pools, PCRIC was recently invited to attend the World Bank workshop “Protecting Paradise: Connecting Insurance and Payment Systems” held in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, 17^th-19^th February 2025.

The workshop brought together representatives of country governments from across the Caribbean, along with international experts in disaster risk finance, insurance, and payment systems for streamlining disaster relief disbursements.

With a focus on the use of parametric insurance to protect marine ecosystems, PCRIC’s Chief Risk Officer, Richard Poulter, shared the experience of designing and issuing policies for coral reefs, for example the policies issued to the Vatuvara Foundation in Fiji and the Government of Niue.  These policies, issued by PCRIC in 2024, are an innovative application of parametric insurance to support immediate reef clean-up and restoration activities along with providing community livelihood support following severe tropical cyclones.

To further discussion in this area the World Bank have release two reports on the role that insurance can play to protect marine ecosystems, one on the role of the domestic insurance sector and how the provision of business interruption insurance could help protect tourism operators dependent upon marine ecosystems and the second on how we can strengthen modelling of the impacts of tropical cyclones on marine ecosystems.

The workshop also provided a valuable opportunity to understand the experience of the Caribbean Risk Insurance and Financing Facility Segregated Portfolio Company (CCRIF SPC) following Hurricane Beryl in 2024 which resulted in record payouts, including through CCRIF’s COAST product which is designed to support the livelihoods of fisherfolk following severe weather events.  One of PCRIC’s ambitions for the coming years is to develop products to support sectors such as fisheries, agriculture, tourism, telecommunications and utilities, and so similar programs in other parts of the world offer valuable learning opportunities.

PCRIC were also invited to attend a separate workshop hosted jointly by CCRIF SPC and the World Food Programme (WFP) on shock responsive social protection and insurance, with panel discussions on the use of parametric insurance to increase payments to vulnerable populations after disasters.  There were also presentations on the WFP CCRIF Top-Up Model of premium finance, and how this can be applied to sectors such as education and the natural environment.

PCRIC wishes to extend heartfelt thanks to the World Bank, CCRIF SPC, WFP, and the Caribbean country representatives for the opportunity to share knowledge and learnings to further our shared agenda on building the resilience of vulnerable nations in the face of increasing disaster risk.