World Bank pushes governments to use nature for disaster protection

The World Bank has released a policy guide making it easier and more attractive for governments to invest in nature-based disaster resilience — using wetlands, mangroves, forests, and other natural systems to absorb floods, storms, and other shocks instead of building only concrete infrastructure. This matters because natural systems are often cheaper to maintain than dams or seawalls, work better as climate changes, and provide side benefits like habitat and water filtration — but most governments still don't have the policies or funding mechanisms to actually deploy them at scale.

For decades, disaster protection meant building engineered infrastructure; this guide tries to shift that by showing governments how to fund and regulate nature-based alternatives, which means the cost and carbon footprint of protecting a coastline or river could drop significantly if they actually adopt these methods.