Nature-based solutions: Overcoming environmental challenges, scaling impact, and shaping the future

: 16 December 2023

Nature-based solutions: Overcoming environmental challenges, scaling impact, and shaping the future

: 16 December 2023

Nature-based solutions (NbS) provide versatile ways to tackle pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges. What are they and how can they make a more impactful difference for the future?

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are projects that work with nature to address a range of important social, economic, and environmental challenges. These challenges include climate change adaptation, land degradation, food security, water availability, urban development, poverty, unemployment, and biodiversity loss.

NbS have gained prominence in global and national policy agendas in recent years, and there is room and opportunity for scaling up their use to make a more impactful difference for the future.

Estimates suggest that nature-based solutions can provide 37% of the mitigation needed until 2030 to achieve the targets of the Paris Agreement.

Challenges

Despite the acknowledged benefits and progress toward shared understanding, debate continues around the adoption of nature-based solutions (NbS). Global, national, and local decision-makers have flagged a range of concerns and barriers to the broader uptake of NbS:

Here are the main worries:

Issues like land rights, limited access to resources, and undervaluing the role of First Nations (often referred to as ‘green colonialism’) and local communities in managing ecosystems have been raised in relation to NbS. Sometimes focusing on specific goals or groups can create unfairness in who bears the costs and gains the benefits.
Some worry that NbS might distract from urgent actions like decarbonisation, considering it a "false solution" instead of a supporting or complimentary approach.
Decision-makers misusing NbS could harm communities and ecosystems by implementing interventions labelled as NbS that fail to meet essential criteria.
NbS leverage ecosystems to address climate challenges, fostering biodiversity and resilience. As corporations embrace the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) framework, integrating NbS into disclosures demonstrates commitment. However, concerns arise over greenwashing, emphasising the need for transparent reporting to ensure genuine contributions to sustainability and ethical ESG investments.
Growing evidence supports NbS effectiveness, but uncertainty, poorly defined goals that make it hard to measure effectiveness, difficulty measuring impacts, and complex assessments due to multiple goals and strategies used alongside NbS, make some sceptical about their suitability as a solution. Time and spatial variations in outcomes also affect how successful stakeholders perceive NbS to be.

Agreed definition

The complexities and the challenges related to nature-based solutions sparked the need for a comprehensive evaluation and definition of NbS. Two decades ago, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) pioneered the concept of nature-based solutions (NbS) with the development of a formal definition and establishment of the Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions as a safeguard for their use.

In March 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) brought together 193 members who delivered a collectively endorsed definition of NbS:

“Nature-based Solutions are actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services, resilience, and biodiversity benefits.”

The members recognised that NbS respect social and environmental safeguards, in line with the three “Rio conventions”, can be implemented in accordance with local, national, and regional circumstances, consistent with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, can be managed adaptively, are among the actions that play an essential role in the overall global effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and can help to stimulate sustainable innovation and scientific research.

The definition acknowledges

Nature-based Solutions contribute to sustainable social and economic development, offering various benefits such as improving human well-being, ecosystem services, resilience, and biodiversity.

It draws from the longstanding acknowledgment of nature's importance and established methods of safeguarding, overseeing, and reviving ecosystems. It encompasses a broad spectrum, comprising natural and altered ecosystems, and emphasises sustainable usage alongside conservation, restoration, and management. It positions NbS within the context of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

The essence of nature-based solutions

Well-designed nature-based solutions are partnerships between people and nature with three main features:

They operate across multiple ecosystems (both natural or modified), spanning terrestrial, freshwater, coastal, marine, urban, peri-urban, and agricultural areas.
They employ various approaches such as conservation, restoration, and sustainable management, to work with nature. They protect ecosystems, restore degraded areas, manage vegetation in watersheds, and promote practices like wetland management for flood risk reduction or to replenish fish stocks. In practice, NbS often intertwine these approaches, combining protection with restoration or integrating sustainable management with conservation activities.
They are solution-oriented and can be utilised to address various social, economic, and environmental challenges like climate change, disasters, land degradation, biodiversity loss, inequality, and unemployment.

Nature-based solutions are internationally recognised as key instruments in tackling various issues, such as adaptation to climate hazards, protection of coastal ecosystems, and support of pollinator-dependent crops, to name a few.

That’s not all – they are often more cost-effective than engineered solutions and able to target multiple challenges simultaneously. For instance, mangrove conservation reduces coastal erosion, has the potential to help decrease flood risk, enhances carbon storage, conserves biodiversity, and fosters sustainable livelihoods.

Why are NbS important for Sustainable Development Goals?

When looking at how to work towards the global sustainable development goals (SDGs) agenda, nature-based solutions have a lot going on in their favor:

Versatile problem solvers – NbS presents an effective approach to tackling a wide array of challenges, including climate change, food and water insecurity, disaster impacts, and threats to human health and wellbeing. Simultaneously, they work towards reducing environmental degradation and stemming biodiversity loss.
Multi-faceted benefits – Each NbS initiative brings multiple benefits to society, the economy, and the environment. For example, while one project may focus on securing water, it can also create jobs, store carbon, and improve infrastructure.
Indispensable contribution – Certain challenges, like biodiversity loss and climate action, cannot be effectively addressed without the contribution of NbS. While rapid decarbonisation is essential, NbS plays a unique and essential role in tackling these specific problems within sustainability efforts.
Employment opportunities – NbS foster economic growth by creating employment opportunities. Initiatives such as reforestation, sustainable agriculture, and ecosystem restoration generate purpose-driven jobs in fields like forestry, conservation, and ecotourism, contributing to both environmental sustainability and livelihood improvement.

Additionally, nature-based solutions have the potential to provide one-third of the required climate mitigation outlined in the Paris Agreement's goals.

The future

Recognising the growing importance of NbS, there's an opportunity for scaling up their use. This will require integrated approaches that link together policy, financial instruments, and technical advances.

The 2022 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) paper titled ‘Nature-based Solutions: Opportunities and Challenges for Scaling Up’, outlines four primary recommendations:

Continue building understanding and consensus through intergovernmental consultations and improved information exchange.
Increase the application of integrated approaches that unify policies, finances, and technical advancements. Creating cross-sector support and platforms for NbS, increasing and redirecting finance towards NbS, improving technical capacity, and the use of safeguards and standards are all elements of these integrated approaches.
Stringent safeguards and standards must guide NbS design, ensuring respect for First Nations and local communities’ rights and long-term sustainability, while addressing operational challenges.
Empower actions led by local communities and First Nations for NbS. This means providing targeted money and technical help to local groups. Scaling up NbS isn't just about big plans – it's also about what happens in local areas.

Future intergovernmental consultations or meetings offer opportunities to further shape the global NbS agenda, fostering consensus, promoting best practices, and establishing frameworks for effective, sustainable, and socially inclusive NbS.

Resources:https://www.dcceew.gov.au/climate-change/policy/nature-based-solutions-for-climate https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2020-020-En.pdf

https://www.iucn.org/our-work/nature-based-solutions

https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/40783;jsessionid=9B54C10523DD820330BBF18B52FEC41C

https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/2021/01/economics_of_nbs.pdf

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0154735

https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/39864/NATURE-BASED%20SOLUTIONS%20FOR%20SUPPORTING%20SUSTAINABLE%20DEVELOPMENT.%20English.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

https://www.naturebasedsolutionsinitiative.org/what-are-nature-based-solutions

United Nations Environment Programme (2022). Nature-based Solutions: Opportunities and Challenges for Scaling Up. Nairobi - https://www.naturebasedsolutionsinitiative.org/news/new-unep-report-opportunities-and-challenges-for-scaling-up-nbs#:~:text=A%20new%20report%20from%20the,%2C%20key%20issues%2C%20and%20concerns

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