Opportunities And Challenges For Promoting Sustainable, Resilient And Inclusive Infrastructure In Environmentally-sensitive Regions

In recent decades, infrastructure investments in environmentally-sensitive regions – such as the Amazon biome, shared by nine countries – have often prioritized mega- projects – especially transportation corridors for export-oriented agribusiness and mining commodities and large hydroelectric dams with associated transmission lines. Such interventions have contributed to conversion of forests and other native vegetation and associated greenhouse gas emissions, loss of biodiversity, land conflicts and migration to urban peripheries that lack basic infrastructure services, failing to improve the quality of life of the vast majority of local populations. An alternative pathway should be based, firstly, on protecting the infrastructure of nature; as in the case of the Amazon, forests and rivers that provide ecosystem services essential for maintaining local livelihoods, as well as regional and global benefits in terms of conservation of biodiversity, regulation of hydrological cycles and climate resilience. An urgent priority is to overcome deficits in essential infrastructure for people’s well- being, especially among marginalized groups, in terms of healthcare, education, sanitation, access to energy, mobility and communications. This should include special attention to improving the quality of life in urban areas, which are increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather events intensified by climate change. Additionally, infrastructure investments in transportation, energy and communications should be reoriented towards support for economic alternatives based on the sustainable use of biodiversity, value-added supply chains, and technological innovation, prioritizing community-based initiatives and valuing traditional knowledge. We argue that national and multilateral public financial institutions can play important roles in supporting the design and implementation pathways for sustainable, resilient, and inclusive infrastructure in environmentally sensitive regions such as the Amazon, including support for upstream planning based on innovative, participatory methodologies. Similarly, foreign direct investments should be based on the guidelines of this alternative pathway.