Nature Based Solutions

Nature-based solutions (NbS) generally refer to the sustainable management and use of nature for tackling societal challenges such as climate change, water security, food security, human health, and disaster risk management. For instance, the protection of mangroves in coastal areas can limit risks of coastal erosion associated to extreme weather conditions, while providing nurseries for fish production to feed local people and sequenstering CO2. Similarly greening roofs or walls can be used to cool down city areas during summer, to capture storm water, to abate pollution, and to increase human well-being while enhancing biodiversity and connecting the city with the wider ecosystem. With NbS, healthy, resilient and diverse ecosystems (either ‘natural’, managed or newly created) are viewed as providing solutions for the benefit of our societies and overall biodiversity, in the face of global change. The term NbS was put forward by practitioners in the late 2000s (in particular the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the World Bank) and quickly thereafter by policymakers in Europe (most notably the European Commission). While the term itself is still being framed, case studies from around the world exemplify its potential, as well as the added-value with respect to existing terms and concepts and in complementing traditional conservation approaches. As a consequence, NbS are on their way to being mainstreamed in national and international policies and programmes (e.g. climate change policy, law, infrastructure investment and financing mechanisms).

Societies increasingly face challenges such as climate change, urbanization, jeopardized food security and water resource provision, and disaster risk. One approach to answer these challenges is to singularly rely on technological strategies. An alternative approach is to manage the (socio-)ecological systems in a comprehensive way in order to sustain and potentially increase the delivery of ecosystem services to humans. In this context, nature-based solutions (NbS) have recently been put forward by practitioners and quickly thereafter by policymakers, referring to the sustainable use of nature in solving coupled environmental-social-economic challenges. While ecosystem services are often valued in terms of immediate benefits to human well-being and economy, NbS focus on the benefits to people and the environment itself, to allow for sustainable solutions that are able to respond to environmental change and hazards in the long-term. NbS go beyond the traditional biodiversity conservation and management principles by "re-focusing" the debate on humans and specifically integrating societal factors such as human well-being and poverty reduction, socio-economic development, and governance principles. In this sense, NbS are strongly connected to ideas such as natural systems agriculture, natural solutions, ecosystem-based approaches, adaptation services, natural infrastructure, green infrastructure and ecological engineering. For instance, ecosystem-based approaches are increasingly promoted for climate change adaptation and mitigation by organisations like United Nations Environment Programme and non-governmental organisations such as The Nature Conservancy. These organisations refer to "policies and measures that take into account the role of ecosystem services in reducing the vulnerability of society to climate change, in a multi-sectoral and multi-scale approach". Likewise, natural infrastructure is defined as a "strategically planned and managed network of natural lands, such as forests and wetlands, working landscapes, and other open spaces that conserves or enhances ecosystem values and functions and provides associated benefits to human populations"; and green infrastructure refers to an "interconnected network of green spaces that conserves natural systems and provides assorted benefits to human populations". Similarly, the concept of ecological engineering generally refers to "protecting, restoring (i.e. ecosystem restoration) or modifying ecological systems to increase the quantity, quality and sustainability of particular services they provide, or to build new ecological systems that provide services that would otherwise be provided through more conventional engineering, based on non-renewable resources". Given the range of different (existing) approaches that NbS seem to cover, IUCN proposes NbS as an umbrella concept (Table 1; Figure 1).

...
Wikipedia