Nature-based Solutions Examples

For over 2000 years people have cooperated with the environment to keep the ocean at bay, levees built to prevent coastal flooding are maintained with thick grass to cover and increase their integrity as well as reducing wave action (Cheong et al., 2013)

Marshes in the Netherlands

The aftermath of the event showed how mangroves can alleviate the impact of tsunami waves and their roots trap sediments to protect against sea level rise; villages behind dense mangrove belts experienced significantly fewer fatalities and less property damage than villages with cleared coastlines (Cheong et al., 2013)

Indian Ocean tsunami 2004

Provide flood protection benefits exceeding $65 billion per year and if lost 15 million more people would be flooded annual around the world; greatest economic benefits apply to the US, China and Mexico and greatest benefits in terms of people protected are Vietnam, India and Bangladesh (Menendez et al., 2020)

Global mangroves

This offshoot of the Bonn Challenge targets 100m ha of savannah for restoration but this is based on erroneous assumptions that the biomes are deforested/degraded; plantation forestry will not reduce CO2, may actually increase net warming due to reducing albedo, will reduce streamflow impacting dry seasons and distracts from the real need to reduce fossil fuel emissions (Bond et al., 2019)

AFR100

Launched in 2011 to restore 350m ha of forest by 2030, pledges from 43 countries aim to restore up to 292m ha but 45% of this will be done using plantation monocultures and only 34% restoring natural forests; natural forests hold 40x more carbon than plantations so this will be very ineffective reducing emissions from 42 billion to 16 billion under current plans (Lewis & Wheeler, 2019)

The Bonn Challenge

Will require 200 billion tonnes of carbon to be removed from the atmosphere by 2100, at 42 billion tonnes if the Bonn Challenge planted solely natural forests this would still not nearly be enough (Lewis & Wheeler, 2019)

The Paris Agreement

A pan-African program with a strong restoration focus, it has great geographical scope as well as financial investment and stakeholder involvement occurring in a window to rethink development actions in the region; began as a ‘wall of trees’ and is now a mosaic of diverse community specific actions with co-benefits such as women-run communal gardens and new water access points (Goffner et al., 2019)

Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel

In a time where state forestry officers could no longer monitor trees there was an opportunity for farmers coordinated with NGOs to experiment with new or rediscovered traditional practices of natural generation of trees, the increased woody vegetation was central to building resilience to climatic (droughts) and economic shocks in the country (Goffner et al., 2019)

Niger

Restoration of vegetation saw a shift in species composition towards shrubs etc. to replace multifunction species and largest trees, this saw important ecosystems services lost to decrease local standards of life showing the need for local research to be effectively carried out (Goffner et al., 2019)

Burkina Faso & Senegal

Due to large scale abandonment of land due to socio-economic changes forcing farmers to find new livelihoods much land was left to naturally reforest, a 70 square km catchment in the west rewilded around 70% over 50 years to improve soil quality, biodiversity and carbon sequestration as well as erosion reduced by 90% and reductions in river discharge (Keesstra et al., 2018)

Rewinding in Slovenia

Deforestation, overgrazing, eruptions and climate led to large scale soil degradation but the SCSI have been restoring and investigating degraded landscapes for over 100 years; restoration dynamics reduce peak discharge, reduce groundwater depletion and lower erosion rates to reduce flood risks, improve water quality and enhance resilience of freshwater resources (Keesstra et al., 2018)

Rangarvellir, southern Iceland

In order to improve water quality these are used to filter water before it enters a larger body using the most efficient trapping species; before this grass strips and soil/stone bunds were used (Keesstra et al., 2018)

Grassed waterways in Ethiopia

Blue-green infrastructure was implemented aiming to adapt to extreme rainfall events, achieve sustainable urban development, involve residents and increase biodiversity by building trenches, ditches, ponds and wetlands to capture flows and fitting green roofs on 10,000 square metres of buildings; this reduced floods to 0 between 2009 and 2015 as well as seeing a 50% decrease in runoff, 50% increase in biodiversity and socio-economic improvements (Keesstra et al., 2018)

Augustenborg, southern Sweden

Efforts began in 2006 to plant one million trees across the city, the tree canopy led to reductions of 3-4 degrees in shaded areas, saved around $10 million due to reduced air conditioning needs and reduced heat disparities between wealthy and lower-income neighbourhoods (McPherson et al., 2011)

Million Trees LA program

Developers often use features such as green roofs and green car parks to technically meet legal requirements of ratios to biologically vital areas (25% on multi-family estates) without attempting to deliver real ecological benefits or ensuring public access; gated communities limit access and intensify spatial inequalities (Galecka-Drozda et al., 2021)

Polish housing development