As a typical coastal city, Xiamen, Fujian Province, China, faces serious societal challenges such as the impact of climate change, overexploitation of natural resources, and loss of biodiversity. Xiamen is implementing Nature-based Solutions (NbS) by strengthening ecological protection, promoting ecosystem restoration, building sponge city, supporting sustainable community development and green transformation of mines, while encouraging funding and diverse public participation. After more than 30 years of exploration and practice, the green development concept of harmonious coexistence between man and nature has been integrated into areas and processes of Xiamen’s economic and social development, making Xiamen’s practice a global example of excellence in NbS and a model for sustainable development of coastal cities.

The Building with Nature initiative increases resilience along 10 km eroding coastlines, combining civil engineering with mangrove rehabilitation to build safe and adaptive coastlines. During 2015 and 2016 8 sediment trapping units were built (~1 km) to stop erosion and support mangrove rehabilitation. Technical measures include sediment balance restoration by permeable dams and mud nourishments, alongside mangrove rehabilitation. Socio-economic measures are currently being developed.   

Watershed management is, at its root, a human behavior challenge. But where humans are often the source of such problems, they are also the solution. Rare trains local leaders to implement behavior change campaigns that inspire communities to adopt new norms for how they interact with nature. Rare empowers communities in Colombia’s most water dependent geographies to participate in the management of their watershed ecosystems so that they benefit from higher water quality and flow and reduce the risk of droughts and floods due to extreme weather changes.

Since 2013, Rare has built the capacity of 14 officials of one of the largest regional environmental authorities of Colombia, Corporación Valle del Cauca, to engage local stakeholders in protecting riparian areas and improving land use practices using the Pride for ARA approach. These farmers are inspired by the Pride campaigns and the offer of technical assistance to protect critical ecosystems for watershed resilience.

A pilot was implemented to underpin the incorporation of an EbA approach into the planning tools for natural protected areas. The necessary methodologies and tools were developed, the vulnerability assessment was completed, the specific areas and the measures to be implemented were identified, including the communal management of native grasslands, vicuñas management (a wild relative of the llama), the expansion and conservation of wetlands and the restoration of water infrastructure.

Ecosystem services were mapped and valued in a participatory process that included designing spatially-explicit scenarios of future human uses throughout Belize’s coastal zone. To understand the implications of different development scenarios, the team used InVEST models to map future value of coastal protection, recreation, and fisheries services. The resulting Plan can help the people of Belize plot a wiser course for managing the incredibly valuable resources their ocean and coast provide.

Public transportation offers in the transboundary (TB) National Park region of Saxon and Bohemian Switzerland were successfully enhanced in a way that conserves natural landscapes while enabling an intensive nature experience for visiting tourists. A broad alliance of representatives from regional politics, tourism, nature conservation, transport and local population created a transportation networking concept whose implementation led to a significant increase in passenger numbers.

The Public Use and Recreation Program (PURP) addresses the problem of destructive recreational activities in Cabo Pulmo National Park. The Program provides guidelines to local tour operators to reduce negative impacts of tourism activities on the Parks’ habitats and ensures their economic sustainability. As a result limits on water sports practiced in the Park are set, which dramatically reduces the impacts on the reefs resulting from these activities.

This solution promotes the integrated management of coastal watersheds that drain into the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of California by aligning the investments of public and private agencies to address climate change impacts and coastal and marine conservation. It is the foundation for enduring cross-sectorial coordination and local participation to maintain and recover watershed functions that deliver ecosystem services, which benefit cities and rural communities.

Mangroves and beach forests provide coastal greenbelts that act as a protective buffer to sea level rise and storms. Moreover, they are particularly effective in mitigating global warming and rising carbon dioxide levels by capturing and storing carbon in both above- and below-ground biomass. On Panay Island, protection of remaining mangroves and rehabilitation of degraded areas is carried out by local communities and supported by local governments.

The solution recovered natural conditions and protects 3,900 ha of unique peat swamp forest ecosystem. The conservation of Melaleuca trees found in this forest type is a national priority because they buffer floods, recharge aquifers and provide habitat for endangered wetland species. About 25,000 people living in the park’s buffer zone benefit through the provision of clean water and small cultivated fish.

Local communities in coastal areas were supported to face to erosion and coastal pollution through:
– Awareness raising on vulnerability to these threats;
– Reduction of the effects of coastal erosion on the city of Aného to ensure the integrity of the area and enable sustainable socio-economic development: refection of the west bank of the mouth of the Lake Togo, rehabilitation of the road along the shore and protection of threatened homes and riverside hotel infrastructure.

The project targeted disaster and climate risk reduction as an integral part of an Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) process conjunctly taking place in DRC. Pilot ecosystem-based measures aimed to reduce soil/gulley erosion and flood risk in two sites (upstream and downstream) in the Lukaya Basin, while improving livelihoods and income. Capacity was developed locally and nationally on ecosystem-based measures and national advocacy on EbA/Eco-DRR was supported through IWRM. 

The project took an Eco-DRR approach addressing hazards and vulnerability to reduce disaster risk. However, the project activities also addressed climate change adaptation through working with climate change impacts and people’s vulnerability to change through the ecosystem-based measures involved in IWRM. Thus these measures can be seen as both Eco-DRR and EbA, while the implementation framework was Eco-DRR.

This pilot project aimed to demonstrate how ecosystem-based measures could mitigate climate hazards and reduce vulnerabilities in Haiti through a ridge to reef approach. It implemented revegetation and sustainable vetiver farming to reduce risk of erosion and inland flooding, revegetation of coastal forest to buffer against storm surges and coastal flooding and created sustainable and resilient fisheries to increase local resilience; it also improved capacity and supported national advocacy.

The project undertook an Eco-DRR approach by targeting hazards (flooding, storm surges and erosion) and vulnerability (due to unsustatinable management) and increasing disaster prepardeness (e.g. early warning) to reduce disaster risk. However, these hazards are climatic hazards and impacts that are increasing due to climate change and increasing peoples vulnerability to climate change. Therefore, the ecosystem-based measures in this project undertaken are also EbA.

The páramo – the typical moorland of the high Andes – is an important ecosystem as it provides key ecosystem services to local communities, especially regarding water regulation. Nevertheless, this ecosystem is under severe threat mainly due to overuse and climate change. With a projected reduction in annual precipitation in Tungurahua, it is ever more important to conserve the páramo ecosystem. The solution integrated climate change into planning and strengthened local management structures.

In Stuttgart, important green belts and green divides stretch between the built-up settlement areas, mitigating the climate heat stress. Greenery now covers more than 60% of the area. Furthermore, over 39% of Stuttgart’s surface area has been put under the protection of nature conservation orders. Incorporating these as important features in a Land Use Plan along with green belt policy are the most promising areas of municipal influence in respect of their impact on urban climatology and climate protection.

Despite their great potential and strategic importance the watersheds of the Tacaná volcano are vulnerable both ecologically and politically. IUCN (through the Water and Nature Initiative, WANI) and partners therefore set up a demonstration project in these watersheds, which combined pilot livelihood projects (water, soil and environmental conservation) and bottom-up integrated governance of water resources management (freshwater ecosystem management). 

The project group “Isar-Plan” was initiated in 1995 to restore the Isar river in Munich from its artificial canal bed to a more natural shape and function in order to improve flood control, biodiversity and recreational opportunities. Construction started in 2000 and was finished in 2011 having restored 8km of river and costing 35 million euros.

Pastures in the South Caucasus region are under pressure through unsustainable use and climate change processes. The GIZ Programme “Integrated Biodiversity Management, South Caucasus” inter alia implements and tests affordable solutions together with local communities, preventing erosion and managing the mountainous ecosystems in a sustainable way. Piloted measures include: stabilization of slopes and river beds, setup of hay-meadows, afforestation, orchard management and construction of a tree nursery.

“Coastal Capital: Belize” addresses threats to Belize’s coastal ecosystems such as unchecked coastal and tourism development and overfishing – by assessing the contribution of reef- and mangrove-associated tourism, fisheries, and shoreline protection services to Belize’s economy. Our results were used to justify new fishing regulations, a successful damage claim against a ship that ran aground on the Belize Barrier Reef, and a ban on offshore oil drilling.

In response to increased coastal flood events and resulting damages, the Environment Agency of the United Kingdom delivered a GBP 27 million project to realign the defences inland, providing significantly improved flood defences to allow for managed flooding. With the help of IUCN, a full assessment against the criteria and indicators of the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutionsᵀᴹ was conducted. The Medmerry managed coastal realignment is considered a strong Nature-based Solution. The building blocks of this solution highlight insights from some of the assessed criteria.

The project addresses the dilemma of finding an economically viable grain crop that would not sacrifice food production for wildlife/biodiversity benefits. With the use of the non-GMO grain crop, spelt (Triticum aestivum subsp. Spelta), an alternative vegetation type on land can aid and maximize habitat value for rare grassland species and increase biodiversity on the landscape while also providing the producer with an economical food crop. The project results indicate that biodiversity increased and from an agricultural standpoint spelt was a more economical crop than hay.

Solution is undertaken using scientific fruit plant propagation and conducting innovative top-wedge grafting of (tree tomato) tamarillo (Solanum betaceum) terminal bud stick scion into its poisonous wild relative  bug weed rootstock tolerant to drought and resistant to soil borne diseases and pests as well as having longer roots  than tamarillo and stronger ones. Both plants belong to Solanaceae plant family, hence grafting the two plants is compatible and methodology transforms bug weed (Solanum mauritianum) as required. This innovation has therefore created food, agriculture and economic opportunities by using grafting methodology to transform the poisonous bug weed into agro biodiversity resources problem globally. Innovation is expected to contribute to feeding the ever growing world population that is expected to be nine billion by 2050.

The concept of food and nutritional security refers to the ability of all people at all times to have physical and income access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs for an active healthy life. It requires food being available enough, stable and accessible; without which inevitably leads to malnourishment that hinders individual performance.  

Any enhancement of the food security calls for farmers’ sensitization and encouragement to adopt strategic methods that will not only cater to food and nutritional security but also income at a household level and sound management of the environment.

Climate change will affect availability, stability, utilization, and access to food security …(UN-ESCAP: Agriculture and Food Security, Asia)

When we farm in a way that maximizes the amount of carbon captured in our crops, and we return as much of that carbon as possible to the soil, we can effectively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in the soil.

Groasis Ecological Water Saving Technology consists of 5 steps that can be taken together or each step individually. It works according to the ‘Triple 90 benefits‘: 90% less water use, 90% cheaper and +90% survival rate. The steps are 1) Stimulating rainwater infiltration in the soil through making 15 kms of mini-terraces per hour with the Terracedixx / 2) Digging planting holes with the Capillary drill that keeps the soil capillary system intact / 3) Using Growmaxx mycorrhizae to help improve the function of or replace fertilizers / 4) Using the intelligent bucket Growboxx® plant cocoon and 5) Using the Growsafe plant protector against goats/ sheep. The technology allows to plant productive trees (orchards, timber, medicines, fodder) in combination with vegetables. They produce food and create short term revenues that allow to finance the technology through microcredit. The technology can be used by literate and illiterate, is gender neutral and does not require cultural adaptation.