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

• Published in: Global change biology Vol. 27; no. 8; pp. 1518 - 1546
• Main Authors: Seddon, Nathalie, Smith, Alison, Smith, Pete, Key, Isabel, Chausson, Alexandre, Girardin, Cécile, House, Jo, Srivastava, Shilpi, Turner, Beth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.04.2021
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Biodiversity loss; carbon; Carbon Sequestration; Climate action; Climate Change; climate change adaptation; Climate change mitigation; Conservation of Natural Resources; Ecosystem; Ecosystems; Forestry; Fossil fuels; Humans; Indigenous peoples; Local communities; Mitigation; policy; politics; society; Sustainability; Sustainable development; Traction; Tree planting; trees; sustainable development; biodiversity; climate change adaptation; climate change mitigation; policy
• ISSN: 1354-1013; 1365-2486; 1365-2486
• DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15513

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. Nature‐based solutions involve the protection, restoration or management of natural and semi‐natural ecosystems; the sustainable management of aquatic systems and working lands; or the creation of novel ecosystems. They are actions that are underpinned by biodiversity and designed and implemented with the full engagement and consent of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. People and nature, together, co‐produce outcomes which benefit society. While the ultimate goal of NbS is to support sustainable development, including human health and wellbeing, the ecosystems that provide NbS must be healthy, functional and biodiverse if such benefits are to be provided in the long term.