The loss of biodiversity, climate change, food security, the supply of water resources or an increased risk of natural disasters, are some of the challenges facing humanity today, to which nature-based solutions aim to respond.
The actions of human beings and their development paradigm have led the planet to a situation of danger, which has put at risk biodiversity and the proper functioning of the biological and physicochemical cycles of the ecosystems that sustain life on the planet, threatening the future well-being of humanity.
The concept of ‘nature-based solutions’ emerged at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (Nairobi, 2006), in which, in addition to seeking new responses to mitigation and adaptation to the effects of climate change, issues such as the protection of biodiversity and the improvement of sustainable livelihoods were addressed.
After the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) defined it in a document for the COP25 negotiations in Madrid (2019), the term has been adopted by important institutions and governments. The biologist and Ph.D. in Ecology and Sustainable Development, Diego Fernando Campos, explains what it is and what its scope is.
What are nature-based solutions (NBS)?
Historically, nature has been perceived as an ‘impediment’ to progress and development. For this reason, there is currently so much deforestation and degradation of different ecosystems. However, in recent years, this vision has changed and awareness has begun to be raised about the importance of nature and ecosystems for the conservation of life on the planet and the well-being of human beings.
The IUCN defined NBS as “actions to protect, sustainably manage and restore natural or modified ecosystems, to address societal challenges efficiently and adaptively by promoting human well-being and biodiversity benefits.” This definition encompasses both dimensions: the benefit for biodiversity but also for humans.
Although it is a relatively new concept, it includes strategies that have been implemented for a long time. When we review the categories of NBS, we find activities such as conservation, which we have been talking about since the end of the nineteenth century, when it was invented – as a discipline of biology – in response to the scarcity of forests and timber in Europe.
In practice, how does a nature-based solution work?
The plant species typical of the páramo capture water from the atmosphere, which little by little forms small streams and even rivers. There are communities that depend on that water. However, when a group of people settles in that place, their activities – housing, crops and livestock – put the species of that ecosystem at risk, which is also in danger of becoming a pasture and ceasing to fulfill its natural functions.
What is the best way to coexist with the páramo to ensure that it continues to fulfil its regulatory function of the water cycle? That’s when nature-based solutions appear: strategies that ensure the functioning of ecosystems, but also provide benefits to human communities and guarantee the survival of species of flora and fauna.
Social challenges addressed by NBS
- Mitigation and adaptation to climate change
- Disaster risk reduction
- Economic and social development
- Human health
- Food safety
- Water safety
- Environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity
Do NBS copy the dynamics of ecosystem functioning or do they create their own to provide a solution to a certain problem?
There is no rule of thumb. For example, conserving the mangrove swamp is a NbN to mitigate natural disasters produced by events such as hurricanes, because it has been shown that they protect the continent from winds of more than 200 kilometers per hour and that the devastation of a hurricane is greater where there is no vegetation cover.
Protecting the mangrove is not copying nature, it is maintaining it. However, there may be other actions that do not copy nature but rather allow it to provide us with more benefits. This is the case of several Amazonian communities that introduced meliponiculture – the cultivation of different species native to bees from South America – to produce different types of honey and ensure that the bees fulfill their function of pollinating and ensure that there are more native species in the area.
Principles underpinning the concept of NBS (IUCN, 2016)
- They adopt the rules (and principles) of nature conservation
- They can be implemented autonomously or integrated with other solutions to societal challenges (e.g., technological and engineering solutions).
- They are determined by site-specific natural and cultural contexts, including traditional, local, and scientific knowledge.
- They deliver social benefits in a fair and equitable manner that promotes transparency and broad participation.
- They maintain biological and cultural diversity and the ability of ecosystems to evolve over time.
- They are applied at the scale of a landscape.
- They recognize and address the trade-offs between obtaining a few economic benefits for immediate development and future options for the production of the full range of ecosystem services.
- They are an integral part of the overall design of policies and measures or actions aimed at addressing specific challenges.
How do you determine which NBS is appropriate for a given problem?
NBS are not created. They must be found according to each context. If we go to the most deforested municipalities in the Amazon, where the local chapters of IRI are located, we will have to see what ecosystems are there. To define them, the people who live in the place must be taken into account, especially those who have lived for several generations, because they really know the ecosystem, they have data, information on its functioning, they know which species inhabit it, etc. In addition, their needs must be taken into account, because ‘nature-based solutions’ have a socio-ecosystem perspective, that is, they take into account human societies.
To know which one should be implemented, each ecosystem must be studied. It is different if we are talking about a páramo, a mangrove or a tropical rainforest such as the Amazon. Even in the same ecosystem, the solution varies depending on the context, for example, if it is inhabited by an indigenous community or another, because it changes its way of making use of the natural.
Could a community determine which NBS needs to implement?
There are solutions based on ancient nature, such as the handicrafts of palm fiber, used by indigenous communities for thousands of years. However, in the face of a problem related to climate change, habitat degradation, the extinction of species or the decrease in biodiversity in a certain area, communities must have accompaniment, because in some cases investment and technical advice are required. Even if they have lived in the place for a long time, they do not necessarily have the necessary knowledge to find the solution.
For example, cocoa cultivation is an NBS that has been implemented because it can be grown within the forest. It contributes to the conservation of biodiversity and the functioning of ecosystems, and provides benefits for communities. An NBS like this requires the support of the State, which helps create a market with policies that include, among others, seed capital or marketing strategies.
What is the scope of NBS?
Ecosystems have scales. There are premises, which are from a few meters to hundreds of meters, and landscape, of hundreds or thousands of hectares. NBS are formulated to have an impact on a landscape scale, because they group together several ecosystems and allow us to think of a large functional ecosystem, not just a small piece of isolated forest, which would have no real impact on its functioning.
There is the case of the white-headed marmoset monkey, an endangered species, emblematic of the dry forest in the Colombian Caribbean. At present it has only between 7,000 and 10,000 individuals who live grouped together as a family – mother, father and children – and each one requires between 5 and 20 hectares to survive. This monkey disperses the seeds of more than 50 species of timber trees. If it ceases to exist, those trees will also cease to exist. The same thing happens in the Amazon with other species of animals. Just like us, they also have the right to survive. That’s what nature-based solutions are all about. For this reason, they need to be implemented on a landscape scale to ensure the functioning of the ecosystem.
Why is conservation a nature-based solution?
Because maintaining an ecosystem has a positive impact not only on biodiversity but also on human well-being. An example is mangroves, where large species of fish and coral reefs are born and raised, therefore, their conservation ensures that there are more certain species of fish for fishermen. In addition, it protects the continent from the sea when it gets aggressive. The same happens with the páramo or the tropical forest.
Can nature-based solutions be an answer to the climate change crisis?
Yes. In the Amazon, where the IRI chapters are located, there are NBS that can be taken from the traditional way of coexisting with nature that the communities that inhabit it had and coincide with a response to climate change. But they are not enough. We may need new nature-based solutions that are combined with traditional ones.
It is necessary to analyze what works and what does not. It may be that some traditional customs exacerbate climate change. In that case, we should suggest to those communities that they stop doing that or do it in a different way. It is not a question of idealizing cultural traditions, but neither of demonizing activities such as cattle ranching or timber extraction. There may be alternative uses; For example, there are ways to produce within the forest by planting more and conserving native species of fauna and flora.
What is the relationship between nature-based solutions and payments for environmental services?
According to the regulations, communities can receive incentives to maintain ecosystems. The State and different organizations are finding ways to implement NBS alternatives that become payment for environmental services, that is, for the benefit received from the ecosystem.
Diego Fernando Campos
Biologist and master’s degree in Molecular Systematics, from the National University of Colombia. Ph.D. in Ecology and Sustainable Development with an emphasis on biodiversity conservation, from the Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR), in Mexico. Professor of the subjects Modeling of biological phenomena, Fundamentals of Ecology and Plant-animal interactions, at the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources of the Francisco José de Caldas District University. Expert in the design and execution of ecology, biodiversity and conservation research projects.
