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Nature as Strategic Infrastructure: Five Ways to Build and Fund Resilience
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Victoria Barbary
Senior Director, Milken Institute
Victoria Barbary is a senior director at the Milken Institute, where her work sits at the intersection of sovereign capital, climate finance, and geo-economic strategy.
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For decades, nature’s contributions to economic life were treated as a given—a background condition rather than a productive asset. That free ride is ending. Geopolitical instability, supply-chain fragmentation, and accelerating climate disruption are making visible what has always been true: Natural systems are infrastructure, and their degradation has measurable, compounding economic costs.
Nature as Strategic Infrastructure: Five Ways to Build and Fund Resilience makes the case for nature-based solutions as a strategic and commercial proposition—not an environmental commitment. Healthy natural systems reduce operational risks, strengthen supply chains, and can complement or replace traditional infrastructure at a fraction of the cost. The question is no longer whether to invest in nature, but how.
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