GCE’s newly founded Nature-based Solutions team recently conducted a social media campaign introducing and defining nature-based solutions, with an emphasis on their benefits, youth, cross sectional collaborations, but also including some important controversies and a series of international best practices. These are some of the main points that were raised by the campaign:
- Nature-based solutions (NbS) are increasingly being recognized as an essential tool to combat the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. NbS refer to actions that protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use, and manage natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal, and marine ecosystems, addressing social, economic, and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively while providing human well-being, ecosystem services, resilience, and biodiversity benefits (UNEA and IUCN definitions).
- NbS can contribute significantly to carbon capture, which is necessary to achieve climate goals, through conservation of forests, wetlands, and regenerative agriculture. This can also help to restore habitats, increase biodiversity, and benefit human health.
- Youth have a crucial role in NbS as they can provide new perspectives, innovative ideas, and development opportunities for often-isolated communities. The Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN), YOUNGO, and Youth4Nature got together to develop a Global Youth Position Statement on NbS to ensure youth inclusion in these initiatives.
- Implementing NbS effectively requires collaboration and partnerships across multiple sectors, including government, businesses, academia, and civil society organizations. However, some criticisms exist on the concept and implementation of NbS. For instance, some of the biggest emitters invest in NbS without investing as well on rapid decarbonization, and few NbS projects engage local communities in the decision-making process, highlighting the need for greater attention to social aspects and empowerment of local communities.
- NbS cannot be successful in generating a positive impact if they lack biodiversity and human rights safeguards at their core. Therefore, evidence-based knowledge and guidance must be developed on what constitutes successful, sustainable NbS, and the criteria for their implementation must be defined.
- Six cases from around the world were presented in order to showcase the benefits of NbS in tackling climate change and promoting sustainable development. For instance, Estonia has been restoring degraded peatlands to transform them from CO2 sources to sinks, and in France, agroforestry represents an innovative solution to reduce emissions while promoting economic benefits for farmers.
In conclusion, NbS can play a crucial role in addressing climate change and biodiversity loss while providing economic and social benefits. However, it is essential to implement them correctly, with attention to social and environmental aspects, and empower local communities. By doing so, we can ensure that NbS provide long-term, sustainable solutions to the current global challenges.
In the following PDF, you will find the six social media campaign posts. Download it and enjoy the content!
