The impacts of the climate crisis are being experienced all across the world, challenging our goals for environmental sustainability. Rising sea levels are causing numerous extreme weather events and threatening biodiversity, food and water security, and human health. However, nature-based solutions can address these issues.
Solutions to help prevent and manage disaster risk are needed, and nature has a significant role to play. Research has suggested that nature-based solutions could be key to minimising climate change and its impacts.
About nature-based solutions
Put simply, nature-based solutions are actions that help us sustainably manage, restore, or protect ecosystems. These solutions assist us in addressing societal challenges like food and water security, climate change, human health, and disaster risk reduction adaptively and effectively while also offering biodiversity and human health benefits.
A nature-based solution is a suite of policies or actions in which nature holds the power. A great example of a nature-based solution is mangroves, which grow along coastlines and offer protective barriers against strong storms and erosion. They filter the water and offer coastal communities food resources and valuable timber.
In addition, they can store a great deal of carbon. Therefore, they are tackling an issue we are facing – restoring and conserving the ecosystems – while also benefiting human health in these coastal communities by increasing their resilience and reducing vulnerabilities.
Other examples of nature-based solutions could include protecting forests since they are home to 80 percent of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. Forests, for instance, offer clean water and air, regulate the climate by removing carbon from the air, and protect against landslides and erosion. For example, rainforests, like the Amazon, act as carbon sinks sequestering significant amounts of carbon in soil and tree biomass.
Why are they important?
Nature-based solutions that help us to preserve grasslands and mangrove forests and sustainably manage, restore, and protect forests and coral reefs are highly effective strategies to slow the rate of climate change.
Over 130 countries have implemented nature-based solution actions into their national climate plans under the Paris Agreement. These natural solutions enable us to maintain and replenish natural elements.
Additionally, they create habitats for endangered species, reduce carbon emissions, restore natural beauty to communities, and conserve the environment. These solutions address global challenges, and while they should not be our only action, research has found they can offer 37 percent of the mitigation necessary to achieve the targets set out in the Paris Agreement until 2030.
Ultimately, they will play an integral role in building resilience in communities and landscapes and climate change adaptation. A number of these solutions are already being implemented by the World Bank to manage disaster risk and relief.
Nature-based solutions are cost-effective and simultaneously address land degradation and biodiversity. Therefore, they can have a positive impact on many global problems at once.
Summary
As extreme weather events intensify, nature-based solutions provide a practical and scalable way to protect, restore, and sustainably manage ecosystems while addressing climate challenges. All pathways to meeting the Paris Agreement targets require significant investment in the conservation, sustainable use, and restoration of natural ecosystems.
Beyond their environmental benefits, these solutions are also powerful economic drivers, creating new industries and job opportunities in sustainable land management, conservation, and ecological restoration. By prioritising NbS, we can protect our planet while fostering a greener, more resilient economy for future generations.
