Experts Make the Case for Treating Rainforests as Critical Economic Infrastructure

A high-level panel convened by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network brought together voices from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, UNEP Finance Initiative, and leading science panels for the Amazon and Borneo to argue that the world's rainforests should be valued, financed, and maintained like bridges, dams, and power grids — not treated as free resources until they collapse.

• New AIIB program trains commercial banks to lend directly to nature projects, adapting public-private partnership models for ecosystem restoration
• Nature has surpassed climate as the No. 1 concern for global banks, UNEP Finance Initiative reports
• Amazon scientist warns of cascading economic, health, and climate crises if deforestation pushes tropical forests past tipping points
• New public accounting standard (IPSAS 51) will let governments value nature on their balance sheets starting in 2028
• IDB highlights model reforestation PPP in Brazil as a template for making nature bankable with private capital
• Congo Basin deforestation threatens Nile water supply, yet no country pays to maintain the forest infrastructure generating it

Why it matters: Panelists argued that the global economy depends on ecosystem services — water regulation, cooling, carbon storage, disease suppression — that governments and markets treat as costless. As those systems degrade, the economic consequences are already materializing in droughts, fires, pandemics, and agricultural losses. The panel's central thesis: until nature is priced, valued on balance sheets, and financed through proven infrastructure tools, private capital will continue flowing overwhelmingly toward activities that destroy it.