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The document argues that Jamaica's coral reefs provide critical economic benefits through tourism, fisheries, and shoreline protection, but these services are threatened by local pollution, overfishing, and global climate change. It advocates for the use of economic valuation to inform policy and emphasizes the need for sustainable fishing and coastal management to prevent economic losses from reef degradation.

The paper introduces the Triple Dividend of Resilience (TDR) framework, which categorizes adaptation benefits into avoided losses (first dividend), induced economic/development benefits (second dividend), and social/environmental benefits (third dividend). It finds that the second and third dividends often exceed the value of avoided losses and can result in benefit-cost ratios greater than 1 independently of whether a disaster occurs. The author argues that fully quantifying these dividends can help mobilize public and private finance and suggests five strategies to standardize TDR analysis, including growing the evidence base and improving data collection.

The document identifies Hurricane Sandy as a demonstration of the United States' vulnerability to extreme weather and notes that human-induced warming is increasing the frequency and intensity of events such as heat waves, torrential downpours, and coastal flooding.

The report evaluates the economic contributions of Jamaica's coral reefs, highlighting their critical role in maintaining beaches for tourism, supporting reef-associated fisheries, and reducing coastal flooding. It warns that further reef degradation will lead to increased beach erosion, reduced tourism revenue, and higher vulnerability to storm-induced inundation, while noting that overfishing has already caused significant historical revenue losses.