In Asia, and in particular in Southeast & East Asia, where the environmental, economic and human impacts of wildfires are increasingly clear, what will it take to shift capital upstream- from paying for losses to investing in resilience before fires happen?
Wildfires are an increasing economic and financial challenge, with impacts extending beyond affected landscapes to communities, businesses and financial institutions. Prevention can meaningfully reduce wildfire severity and frequency with every $1 invested in mitigation generating $4 in avoided losses. Yet capital remains concentrated on suppression and recovery, leaving prevention underfunded.
Catalytic capital can help shift investment upstream by absorbing early-stage risk and unlocking capital at scale. For the private sector, investing in wildfire resilience is not only a risk-management imperative but can also create opportunities for new financing mechanisms, resilience-linked investment vehicles and public-private partnerships that can deliver financial, societal and environmental returns. ASEAN is well positioned to lead this shift, combining globally significant tropical forests and peatlands with the financial institutions, insurers, investors and philanthropy needed to pioneer these models.
As part of a collaboration between GAEA’s Big Bets Accelerator and the Forest Future Alliance, this session will explore how catalytic and blended capital can de-risk wildfire prevention and unlock institutional investment in resilience, building a shared view of where and how these approaches can be applied across ASEAN’s diverse ecosystems.
