Getting the message right on nature‐based solutions to climate change

Abstract

Nature‐based solutions (NbS)—solutions to societal challenges that involve working with nature—have recently gained popularity as an integrated approach that can address climate change and biodiversity loss, while supporting sustainable development. Although well‐designed NbS can deliver multiple benefits for people and nature, much of the recent limelight has been on tree planting for carbon sequestration. There are serious concerns that this is distracting from the need to rapidly phase out use of fossil fuels and protect existing intact ecosystems. There are also concerns that the expansion of forestry framed as a climate change mitigation solution is coming at the cost of carbon rich and biodiverse native ecosystems and local resource rights. Here, we discuss the promise and pitfalls of the NbS framing and its current political traction, and we present recommendations on how to get the message right. We urge policymakers, practitioners and researchers to consider the synergies and trade‐offs associated with NbS and to follow four guiding principles to enable NbS to provide sustainable benefits to society: (1) NbS are not a substitute for the rapid phase out of fossil fuels; (2) NbS involve a wide range of ecosystems on land and in the sea, not just forests; (3) NbS are implemented with the full engagement and consent of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in a way that respects their cultural and ecological rights; and (4) NbS should be explicitly designed to provide measurable benefits for biodiversity. Only by following these guidelines will we design robust and resilient NbS that address the urgent challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss, sustaining nature and people together, now and into the future.

The Integration of Nature-Based Solutions into Climate Adaptation Policy and Planning in Bangladesh

“…NbS are also meant to engage and integrate indigenous peoples and local communities (Seddon, et al 2021). In PP 2021-2041, the policy emphasized increasing forest coverage in hilly regions without considering the impact on the ethnic communities there.…”

“…We approached NbS as an umbrella term (Seddon, et al 2021) and searched for the following keywords to analyze the policies: "nature-based solutions;" "ecosystem;" "ecosystem-based adaptation"; "green infrastructure;" and "ecosystem services." We also included the keyword "disaster management" to examine whether the aforementioned approaches were considered as tools for addressing climate change and disaster management.…”

Leveraging Nature‐based Solutions for transformation: Reconnecting people and nature

“…The zero draft of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework also emphasizes the need for NbS to address climate change mitigation and adaptation (Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), 2020b). The use of the term dates back to a 2008 World Bank report focusing on the climate change mitigation and adaptation co-benefits of biodiversity conservation (MacKinnon et al, 2008; see Seddon et al, 2021 for a full account of the origins and use of the concept). More recently, NbS has been defined by IUCN as 'actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems, that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits' (Cohen-Shacham et al, 2016).…”

Maximizing the effectiveness of national commitments to protected area expansion for conserving biodiversity and ecosystem carbon under climate change.

“…Increased attention is also needed to the essential role of natural ecosystems in ameliorating climate change through their capacity to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and offset direct emissions from other sectors (Goldstein et al, 2020;Morecroft et al, 2019). Proactive protection of above-and below-ground carbon within intact ecosystems provides an important mitigation pathway distinct from that offered by improved intensive management or restoration of agricultural, grassland, and forested landscapes, such as widely-publicized tree planting initiatives (Fargione et al, 2018;Griscom et al, 2017;Law et al, 2018;Seddon et al, 2021). An approach that focuses on avoided conversion of natural areas at meaningful scales is especially important in landscapes such as peatlands and old forests that hold large quantities of ecosystem carbon that, if lost due to disturbance, would be irrecoverable within a timescale meaningful to addressing climate change (Beaulne et al, 2021;Goldstein et al, 2020;Law et al, 2018).…”