What evidence exists on the links between natural climate solutions and climate change mitigation outcomes in subtropical and tropical terrestrial regions? A systematic map protocol

Abstract

Background Natural climate solutions (NCS)—actions to conserve, restore, and modify natural and modified ecosystems to increase carbon storage or avoid greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—are increasingly regarded as important pathways for climate change mitigation, while contributing to our global conservation efforts, overall planetary resilience, and sustainable development goals. Recently, projections posit that terrestrial-based NCS can potentially capture or avoid the emission of at least 11 Gt (gigatons) of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, or roughly encompassing one third of the emissions reductions needed to meet the Paris Climate Agreement goals by 2030. NCS interventions also purport to provide co-benefits such as improved productivity and livelihoods from sustainable natural resource management, protection of locally and culturally important natural areas, and downstream climate adaptation benefits. Attention on implementing NCS to address climate change across global and national agendas has grown—however, clear understanding of which types of NCS interventions have undergone substantial study versus those that require additional evidence is still lacking. This study aims to conduct a systematic map to collate and describe the current state, distribution, and methods used for evidence on the links between NCS interventions and climate change mitigation outcomes within tropical and sub-tropical terrestrial ecosystems. Results of this study can be used to inform program and policy design and highlight critical knowledge gaps where future evaluation, research, and syntheses are needed. Methods To develop this systematic map, we will search two bibliographic databases (including 11 indices) and 67 organization websites, backward citation chase from 39 existing evidence syntheses, and solicit information from key informants. All searches will be conducted in English and encompass subtropical and tropical terrestrial ecosystems (forests, grasslands, mangroves, agricultural areas). Search results will be screened at title and abstract, and full text levels, recording both the number of excluded articles and reasons for exclusion. Key meta-data from included articles will be coded and reported in a narrative review that will summarize trends in the evidence base, assess gaps in knowledge, and provide insights for policy, practice, and research. The data from this systematic map will be made open access.

Proposed solutions to anthropogenic climate change: A systematic literature review and a new way forward

“…Engaging small-scale forest growers in tropical landscapes can assist with restoration of degraded forest areas and provide renewable, carbon positive wood materials [ 187 ]. Existing mechanisms to control deforestation, such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), have been criticized for lack of effective implementation, monitoring, permanence, and leakage (moving deforestation to an unregulated area) [ 178 , 179 , [187] , [188] , [189] , [190] ]. If tropical deforestation is to be stopped and reversed, the global community needs to focus on the link between global beef consumption/trade levels and regional/global change [ 191 , 192 ].…”

“…The concept of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) addresses climate change through actions aimed at the restoration, protection and sustainable management of natural and modified ecosystems (ocean and terrestrial) [ 195 , 209 , [212] , [213] , [214] , [215] , [216] , [217] ], protection of biodiversity [ 216 , [218] , [219] , [220] ], and increasing the capacity and capture rate of carbon sinks (both natural and artificial) [ 62 , 221 , 222 ]. NBS include ecosystem stewardship activities referred to as Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) to increase carbon storage or decrease GHG emissions [ 186 , 190 , 195 , 214 , 216 , 223 , 224 ]. NBS aim to resolve the dichotomy between economic growth and sustainability/climate change mitigation [ 225 ].…”

What evidence exists on the ecological and physical effects of built structures in shallow, tropical coral reefs? A systematic map protocol

“…Analyses will be conducted in R [36] to answer the posed Table 7 Typology of ecological performance outcomes. Typologies are largely adapted from [35], and to a lesser extent from [7,9,42,56] The ecological outcomes focus on characteristics of coral related to or affected by built structure interventions primary and secondary research questions, characterize the evidence base, and identify both evidence clusters and evidence gaps. Specifically, the extent of evidence on different types of built structure interventions by their typology (Table 6), material, proprietary name, and policy relevant term will be characterized.…”

Integrating biodiversity into financial decision‐making: Challenges and four principles

“…Two of the main sources of voluntary carbon credits are directly related to biodiversity: avoided nature loss (including deforestation) and nature‐based sequestration, such as reforestation (the others are avoidance or reduction of emissions such as methane from landfills; and technology‐based removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere). Evidence suggests that these solutions can achieve the desired positive biodiversity and climate effects (Cheng et al, 2022).…”