Investing in Natural Infrastructure: Restoring Watershed Resilience and Capacity in the Face of a Changing Climate

摘要

With changing climate conditions and intensifiedhuman use, the natural infrastructure providedby healthy, functioning watersheds—wetlands,soils, watercourses, aquifers, and floodplains—is cur-rently under threat of loss at an unprecedented globalscale. To meet the challenge, a step-change in investmentand attention is needed by society to restore the naturalcapacity and resilience of watersheds so that present andfuture generations may enjoy the goods and services theyprovide. Losing the natural infrastructure associated withwatersheds can weaken resilience to rapidly changing cli-mate conditions and ultimately hinder economic develop-ment and human well being. Yet, natural infrastructure iswidely overlooked when it comes to investment decisions;it is the built infrastructure—dams, reservoirs, and floodbarriers—that tends to be given precedent by markets,investors, and policy makers. The challenge is to uncover,and bring to the foreground of awareness, the underlyingvalue of natural infrastructure so that better decisions maybe made and resources allocated.