Conference Agenda

This session will bring together experts and practitioners to discuss challenges, opportunities and innovations in the deployment of nature-based solutions (NBS) for hazard mitigation and climate adaptation.

The Fifth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) (UNEP 2022b) resolution formally adopted the definition of NBS as “actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems, which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services and resilience and biodiversity benefits”.

There is growing evidence of the many benefits of ecosystem-based interventions (Chausson et al. 2020; Sudmeier-Rieux et al. 2021) and numerous global, national, and local organizations and governments are now investing in NBS approaches (European Commission 2020a; IUCN 2021; Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat 2021). The EU’s 2030 biodiversity strategy (European Environment Agency 2021), a key pillar of the 1-trillion-euro European Green Deal, includes a nature restoration plan that can boost the uptake of nature-based solutions.

Despite the increase in attention given to NBS, and the universal acknowledgment of their many socio-economic and environmental benefits, ecosystem-based interventions have not experienced a transformative upscaling and their source of financing is still primarily the public sector (Vicarelli et al. 2024). NBS compete on an uneven ground with engineering solutions due to several factors, including inadequate monitoring and economic valuation techniques to compare interventions, communicate their benefits and design sound policies and programs. Limited scientific knowledge about cost-effectiveness and equity outcomes of NBS is an area that requires further research; and there is an urgent need for improved monitoring and economic valuation standards.

Our discussion will focus on:

● The development of economic valuation methodologies to assess the cost-effectiveness of NBS

● The potential of NBS to promote equity and social justice in hazard mitigation and adaptation projects, especially in underserved communities

● Strategies to overcome the challenges in scaling NBS, including innovative financial instruments to finance NBS

● Case studies of full-scale implementation of nature-based solutions and lessons learned