After hurricanes damage coral reefs, the Nature Conservancy’s Reef Brigades get to work. These scuba divers recover and reattach coral reef fragments after storms. This work is expensive, so the group took out an insurance policy on Hawaii’s reefs—the first in the U.S. When winds reach a certain speed, the policy kicks in and pays the Reef Brigades to dive in—literally.

Protecting corals from storms protects people too. “When storms hit, coral reefs absorb wave energy and reduce the amount of flooding that happens on shore,” says Eric Roberts of the Nature Conservancy.