As we look toward COP30 in Belém, where nature and biodiversity will be key agenda items, AIIB is working with partners to build on concepts outlined in our Nature as Infrastructure report and create solutions that can help unlock new flows of capital toward conservation, restoration, and sustainable management. The goal is to create practical pathways that make investing in nature both financially viable and socially beneficial.
Humans have always benefitted from a symbiotic relationship with the natural world. We depend on nature, and the biodiversity it facilitates, for our food, energy, water, resources, medicine, employment and leisure. We cannot live without it.
Despite this, global ecosystems are under unprecedented pressure. Growing populations, expanding industries and urbanization continue to undermine nature’s balance, which threatens both our environmental and economic stability.
At the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), we have long considered how we can reconcile infrastructure development with maintaining biodiversity. Taking the definition of infrastructure as “the physical and organizational structures needed for society operate” we can see that nature and biodiversity–to all intents and purposes–are infrastructure. It is vital that more actors in the development space adopt this same philosophy and do so in the following ways.
Defining the value of nature and biodiversity
Part of this journey involves redefining how we value the services nature provides. Forests, wetlands, coral reefs, and mangroves offer vast economic and environmental benefits by stabilizing coastlines, providing sources of nutrition and sequestering carbon - yet these services, and their long-term economic benefits, are not recognized by investors or governments.
At the macro level, there is a need to understand how the economic activity of countries and sectors depends on nature and biodiversity, as well as to address various layers of market failures. One, nature and biodiversity loss are not sufficiently factored into existing creditworthiness and debt sustainability assessments. Over exploitation of natural resources can often lead to short term GDP or export boost, while masking longer term harm that accrues locally as well as globally. Second, developing countries hold a greater share of earth’s natural capital, contributes much to ecosystem services which we all depend on, but are not otherwise rewarded sufficiently for conservation efforts. Just to name a few.
At the micro level, there is a need to understand the intricacies of local ecosystems and the tremendous, and often unpriced, services they bring and factor these meaningfully into all development decisions. Internalizing the value of nature in macroeconomic and microeconomic decisions is the first step toward creating the necessary incentives to protect and enhance nature.
Conceptualizing Nature as Infrastructure
An intact mangrove or wetland provides widespread support for human wellbeing via regenerative supplies of raw materials, nutrition, livelihood, while mitigating against climate change and floods. Forests act as natural infrastructure pumps to bring water into inland regions. Urban green spaces are nature’s air-conditioners. Well-functioning river systems provide both irrigation and agricultural services.
Where nature can provide such infrastructure-like services, grey infrastructure should be carefully considered and investments in nature’s restoration should be the norm rather than the exception. There is also a need to find avenues to monetize nature’s services to meet both nature and financial sustainability.
Building infrastructure greener
Infrastructure will always be necessary for development. However, many forms of grey infrastructure, including those related to the urbanization that Asia is experiencing, impact nature and biodiversity negatively. We can- and must- do more to protect nature as our most critical infrastructure through more investment and attention.
We can design grey infrastructure more thoughtfully by regulating and minimizing its impact on wildlife and ecosystems. For example, developing wildlife corridors under roads or permeable pavements to reduce urban runoff into rivers all ensure that infrastructure coexists with natural systems rather than disrupting them.
We can also turn infrastructure from grey to green by adding nature-positive components, which increase biodiversity. This includes developing green roofs to provide habitats for species and developing wetlands to treat storm water.
Developing investment tools
To fully integrate biodiversity into development decisions, nature must be valued as an asset class. This requires innovative financial tools and supportive policies. Examples include usage charges for ecosystem services, permits and taxes on environmental impacts, and adaptive local regulations that protect habitats.
Financial instruments–such as debt-for-nature swaps or performance-linked bonds–can channel investment toward biodiversity-friendly projects. Lessons from carbon markets and green finance guide these approaches, ensuring that funding flows effectively to initiatives that protect nature while supporting economic development. We also need to effectively solve the horizon mismatch. Policy-based loans, long term and at low costs, are also a key part of the equation to support countries to take on long term policy efforts to conserve.
By embedding nature and biodiversity into decision-making, we can create resilient economies that recognize the tangible and intangible value of nature.
Putting biodiversity at the heart of development
Integrating nature into development decisions is no longer a choice–it is a fundamental imperative for global stability and prosperity.
By redefining value, rethinking infrastructure, and reshaping finance, we can move toward an economy where nature and biodiversity are protected not out of charity, but because they are recognized as one of our most vital and irreplaceable assets.
