The Environment Consultant

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are actions that protect, restore, and sustainably manage ecosystems in ways that simultaneously address societal challenges and promote human well-being and biodiversity. They include a wide range of interventions, from rewilding rivers and restoring floodplains, to planting climate-resilient native species, to redesigning urban landscapes with green infrastructure.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) defines NbS as actions that are inspired by, supported by, or copied from nature, and that deliver measurable benefits for both biodiversity and people. Critically, NbS offer the dual role to be both environmental projects and systemic solutions grounded in ecological science, social equity, and long-term governance.

What distinguishes NbS from more traditional conservation approaches is their explicit focus on solving human challenges. For example, restoring mangroves not only improves biodiversity and fisheries but also protects coastal communities from storm surges. Similarly, urban green spaces help reduce heat stress, improve air quality, and enhance mental well-being, while simultaneously supporting pollinators and native flora.

Benefits of NbS

The strength of NbS lies in their co-benefits across multiple policy domains:

• Biodiversity: By restoring habitats and improving ecological connectivity, NbS address habitat degradation, which is one of the root causes of biodiversity loss.
• Climate adaptation and resilience: NbS reduce exposure to climate hazards such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves. For example, restoring forests in water catchments can reduce flood risk downstream.
• Water and food security: Sustainable land and water management practices enhance soil fertility, regulate water flows, and support more resilient agriculture systems.
• Human health and well-being: Green and blue spaces in urban areas contribute to mental and physical health, while providing recreation and cultural value.
• Social and economic development: NbS can support green jobs, empower Indigenous and local communities, and strengthen social cohesion, especially when designed with participatory governance.

These wide-ranging benefits are driving increasing attention from both public and private sectors. However, realizing the full potential of NbS requires moving beyond pilot projects and into scaled, well-governed, and long-term programs, integrated into national development, land use, and climate strategies.

Climate change mitigation and regulatory context

Among the many benefits of NbS, their role in climate mitigation has received the most political and financial attention. In this context, NbS refer to actions that enhance carbon sinks or avoid emissions through ecosystem-based interventions. Thus, NbS can help remove or avoid a significant share of global greenhouse gas emissions by protecting and enhancing these systems.
These include:

• Afforestation and reforestation of degraded landscapes.
• Restoration of peatlands and wetlands, which are significant carbon stores.
• Agroforestry and regenerative agriculture, improving soil carbon and ecosystem resilience.
• Blue carbon ecosystems such as mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrasses that sequester carbon in biomass and sediments.
• Avoided deforestation, which prevents large-scale carbon releases while protecting biodiversity.

Historically, NbS have been underrepresented in climate finance and policy, but this is beginning to shift. Several international and regional legal instruments are now creating the enabling environment for NbS to contribute meaningfully to climate goals:

• Article 6 of the Paris Agreement provides a mechanism for countries to cooperate on emissions reductions, including through the use of high-integrity, nature-based credits, if designed with environmental and social safeguards.
• The EU Biodiversity Strategy, Nature Restoration Law, and forthcoming Carbon Farming Initiative offer dedicated regulatory and financial frameworks to scale NbS across Europe, especially in agriculture and forestry.
• While the EU ETS does not currently include land-use offsets, other carbon markets such as New Zealand’s ETS, Colombia’s regulated market, and voluntary standards like Verra and Gold Standard have begun certifying NbS-based credits.
• Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement increasingly include nature-based commitments, particularly through REDD+ and forest-related targets.

Yet significant challenges remain. There is still no universal standard for what constitutes a high-integrity nature-based carbon credit, and concerns persist around permanence, additionality, and benefit sharing, especially in voluntary carbon markets. Moreover, there’s a risk that NbS could be misused as offsets to delay decarbonization, rather than as a complementary solution.