Living Landscapes: Nature-Based Solutions for a Changing World

As climate shocks intensify and biodiversity loss accelerates, policy-makers and practitioners are turning to an idea that is both old and new: Nature-based Solutions (NbS). Defined by the IUCN as “actions to protect, sustainably use, manage and restore natural or modified ecosystems, which address societal challenges, effectively and adaptively, providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits”, NbS can offer a triple win – climate adaptation, ecological restoration, and social resilience, delivering benefits that engineered solutions alone cannot match. Indeed, nature could contribute as much as 37% of global carbon mitigation to keep global warming below 2°C, as targeted in the Paris Agreement. NbS are remarkable not only for their versatility, but also for their ability to be applied in nearly every ecosystem and biome worldwide – from deserts to oceans, mountains to steppes, mangroves to degraded farmlands.

Although the term “NbS” is relatively new, gaining prominence through the recent UN resolution and global policy discussions, the principles behind them could be as old as human settlement itself. For centuries, communities have relied on nature to manage water and land, protect against natural hazards, and maintain ecological balance, often guided by traditional and indigenous knowledge systems. Across regions and cultures, traditional ecological knowledge has long shaped nature-based practices: terraced farming in Asia, rainwater harvesting in Africa, or aqueducts and dikes in Mesoamerica and the Middle East, and the use of fire for land management by indigenous and Aboriginal communities across Australasia, and the Americas. These systems laid the foundation for sustainable resource management long before the term “sustainability” entered policy vocabulary. Hence, when combined with traditional and Indigenous knowledge of natural resources use and management, NbS can form a powerful shield against climate risks, while also sustaining livelihoods and preserving cultural heritage.