Nature-based Solutions to Global Challenges Foundation Course
This course is an introduction to NbS for professionals working in a range of sectors: staff at NGOs from the development and environmental sectors wanting to better understand the evidence from research and practice on how NbS can deliver multiple benefits.
Duration
8 Weeks, 4 Hours Per Week
Location
Online, Microsoft Teams
Next Available Course
September 2025
Introduction
Why Nature-based Solutions?
Nature-based solutions are now widely recognised as playing a critical role in addressing major global challenges, in particular mitigating and adapting to climate change whilst delivering multiple benefits for people and nature.
With careful implementation, they can also build resilience and reduce risk within supply chains, and can help organisations meet both their net-zero and nature-positive goals.
Consequently, nature-based solutions have rapidly gained traction in business and policy over the past 2-3 years. However, there remains confusion about what counts as a nature-based solution, how they compare to tech-based approaches, and how they should be designed, implemented, financed and governed ethically and sustainably.
To address this, we offer the Nature-based Solutions to Global Challenges Foundation Course to improve awareness and understanding of the science, policy, practice, resourcing and governance of nature-based solutions.
Who Is This For?
This course is an introduction to NbS for professionals working in a range of sectors: staff at NGOs from the development and environmental sectors wanting to better understand the evidence from research and practice on how NbS can deliver multiple benefits and for whom, to enable them to hold governments to account; business executives wanting to better understand the risks and also the opportunities of investing in NbS; civil servants, regulators, and investors working to develop policies that can enable economic recovery whilst supporting net-zero and biodiversity goals; and philanthropists wanting to support activities that have positive outcomes for both people and nature.
It will provide participants with knowledge that will enhance future work on nature-based solutions.
We offer this as an online course delivered over 8 weeks.
The next course run will be in September 2025.
“I highly recommend this course for anyone wanting to strengthen their understanding of the science, policy, practice, financing and governance of Nature-based Solutions” Hester DeCasper, International Finance Corporation
Next course run, September 2025
What Is Involved?
This 8-week online course will take place over 9 weeks to include a mid-course reading week. Each week will cover a critical theme around the science, policy, practice, governing and/or financing of NbS. There will be two sessions a week, each 2 hours long. The first hour of each session with involve a presentation on the theory and evidence around a particular theme, followed by Q&A; the second hour, will involve break out sessions or panels, and be highly interactive with examples of the practice of NbS from around the world, highlighting good as well as bad practice examples related to the theme of the day.
Presentations will be delivered and workshops facilitated by world-leading experts from Oxford University and beyond on the science, policy and practice of nature-based solutions and will draw on examples from a wide range of ecological, socioeconomic and political contexts from across the world. Attendance and participation at all sessions is expected.
Who's Involved?
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Nathalie Seddon
Professor of Biodiversity and founding Director of the Nature-based Solutions Initiative, University of Oxford
Read BiographyNathalie Seddon is Professor of Biodiversity and Founding Director of the Nature-based Solutions Initiative in the Department of Biology and Smith School for Enterprise and Environment at the University of Oxford. She is also Director of the Agile Initiative, a member of the Executive Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, and is a Senior Research Fellow at Wadham College.
In 2021, she co-founded the Oxford University Social Venture, Nature-based Insetting of which she is non-executive Director.
Nathalie trained as an evolutionary ecologist at Cambridge University and has over 25 years of research experience in a range of ecosystems across the globe. As a University Research Fellow of the Royal Society, she developed broad research interests in understanding the origins and maintenance of biodiversity and its relationship with global change. Her work now focuses on determining the ecological and socioeconomic effectiveness of nature-based solutions to societal challenges, and how to increase the influence of robust biodiversity science on the design and implementation of climate and development policy.
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Nicola Ranger
Director of the Global Finance and Economy Group at Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute and of the Resilient Planet Finance Lab
Read BiographyDr Nicola Ranger is the Director of the Global Finance and Economy Group at Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute (ECI) and of the Resilient Planet Finance Lab. She is also Executive Director of the Oxford Martin Systemic Resilience Initiative, co-Director of the UKRI Integrating Finance and Biodiversity Programme and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for New Economic Thinking of the Oxford Martin School. Her research addresses the measurement, valuing and integration of resilience, nature and sustainability within decision making, with a focus on finance and policy, and how to mobilise investment for sustainable, resilient and inclusive growth. She brings 20 years’ experience across government, IFIs, private sector and academia and holds multiple advisory roles. She works with governments, Central Banks, regulators, financial institutions and international organisations to provide analytics and evidence to inform finance and policy at all scales. Her research covers climate, nature, resilience, food, water and the SDGs with a strong finance, macro and public policy lens. She works predominantly in UK/Europe and emerging and developing economies. She has previously held senior positions at the World Bank, FCDO, DFID, Defra and HM Treasury as well as in the private sector and at the London School of Economics.
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Cécile Girardin
Technical Director of the Nature-based Solutions Initiative, and founding Director of Nature-based Insetting, Ltd.
Read BiographyCécile combines years of experience in climate change policy analysis with a background in tropical ecology and a thorough understanding of forest ecosystem functioning to provide a unique multidisciplinary approach to her work. She is Director of Nature Based Insetting, Technical Director of Nature-Based Solutions Initiative, Science Lead of the Oxford Biodiversity Network, and Oxford Martin School Fellow.
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Erin Gray is the Director of Economics for One Water Econ, based in Colorado. Erin has over 16 years’ experience in environmental economics and policy and is a recognized expert in nature-based solutions for addressing water security and climate challenges. Her areas of expertise include ecosystem service valuation using market and non-market methods, policy appraisal analysis (e.g., cost-benefit analysis and environmental and social impact analysis), nature-based solutions financing approaches, and economics system change and transformation theory. Prior to One Water Econ, she spent 14 years working as Senior Environmental Economist at the World Resources Institute’s Global Economics Center. Erin has developed a number of economic and financial analyses, tools, and guidance documents to help decision-makers understand the economic, social and environmental trade-offs of policy and investment decisions, and the system shifts needed to scale action on climate and nature.
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Kes McCormick is a Professor of Business Development and Sustainable Innovation in the Department of People and Society at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He also holds a position at the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University. With a background in political science and environmental science, he engages in a combination of research, education, and collaboration activities on sustainability, business, innovation, and governance. He has authored and edited, Urban Nature: New Directions for City Futures (Cambridge University Press, 2024) and A Research Agenda for Sustainable Cities and Communities (Edward Elgar, 2023). He is deeply engaged in online and in-person education, capacity building, and lifelong learning, including through Massive Open Online Courses.
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Yuliya Voytenko Palgan
Associate Professor and Director of PhD Education, International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE)
Read BiographyDr Yuliya Voytenko Palgan is an Associate Professor in Sustainable Development at the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE), Lund University, Sweden. With over 18 years of experience in multicultural and interdisciplinary teams, she works in the areas of sustainability, urban governance, innovation and sustainable consumption. Yuliya’s research focuses on sustainable urban transformation (e.g. nature-based solutions and sharing economy in cities, urban living labs, alternative food networks). She leads work in two EU Horizon Europe projects, CULTIVATE (GA No. 101083377) and NATURESCAPES, and in the project SURFIT. Yuliya promotes education for sustainability at postgraduate, graduate, undergraduate and professional levels.
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Rachael Garrett
Moran Professor of Conservation and Development at the University of Cambridge
Read BiographyRachael Garrett is the Moran Professor of Conservation and Development at the University of Cambridge. Her research examines the drivers and impacts of land change, primarily in forest landscapes, and the effectiveness and equity of forest conservation policies and practices. Professor Garrett works closely with national agriculture and forestry agencies in the regions where she works, including ongoing partnerships with Embrapa in Brazil. She also works closely with companies to advise them on their supply chain policies.
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Aline is a Research Fellow at the Nature-based Solutions (NbSI) and Oxford Net Zero (ONZ) Initiatives. Her research interests focus on scenario modelling for environmental and climate policy evaluation, with a particular emphasis on Brazil. She has experience using regional economic land-use models to provide quantitative science-based results to Brazilian stakeholders and policymakers. As part of the NbSI and ONZ, she is interested in understanding the synergies and trade-offs between net zero policies and biodiversity conservation, including the role of Nature-based Solutions in climate mitigation efforts. Aline is also interested in evaluating policies regarding ecosystem protection connected to forest-risk supply chain agreements.
Aline previously advised Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation on generating technical inputs that can be used to update the country’s NDC and the net zero plan, from September 2023 to September 2024. She was also part of the team of researchers working on the development of SINAPSE 2.0, a scenario modelling platform for climate and environmental policy evaluation in Brazil.
Her background is Mathematics and she has a Master and a PhD in Applied Computing from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research on unconstrained global optimization. She is an environmental scientist by training with experience in regional economic land use modelling for quantitative policy evaluation.
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Alison Smith
Senior Research Associate, Nature-based Solutions Initiative and the Environmental Change Institute
Read BiographyAlison is a Senior Research Associate at both the Nature-based Solutions Initiative and the Environmental Change Institute. Her work focuses on developing methods of mapping and assessing opportunities for nature-based solutions in the landscape, and exploring the resulting synergies and trade-offs between different goals such as climate change mitigation and adaptation, nature recovery, food and timber production, water supply and socio-economic outcomes. Before joining the University of Oxford ten years ago, Alison spent 17 years as an environmental policy consultant specialising in climate, energy, waste and transport policy. Today, she works in close partnership with local councils, government agencies and other non-academic partners to apply her mapping and assessment research in practice.
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William Thompson is a Senior Research Fellow at the Nature-based Solutions Initiative, University of Oxford. At the NbSI, in collaboration with international research institutions, NGOs and industry, he leads the development of the High Agricultural Reforestation Potential (HARP) Toolkit and the Flourishing Landscapes Programme (FLP). In addition, he is collaborating on the ETH Zurich led Sustain-Cocoa project to evaluate the impacts of forest focused supply chain policies on West African cocoa producers and the remnants of the Guinean forests. Will has diverse experience in food systems and agriculture across research, private sector and international organisations. He gained experience in food sourcing and sustainability with Sainsbury’s Supermarkets in the UK, Costa Rica, Australia and Hong Kong. Following this, he worked at the United Nations World Food Programme in Tanzania, where he co-ordinated the on-the-ground establishment of a weather risk transfer mechanism for smallholder maize farmers, as part of the WINnERS project for the Farm to Market Alliance. This led to him completing a doctorate in food systems resilience, at the Sustainable Agroecosystems Group of ETH Zurich.
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Alexandre Chausson
Read BiographyAlex has a background in interdisciplinary conservation science and has been conducting applied evidence synthesis on nature-based solutions, particularly in climate change adaptation and development. From 2017, he played a foundational role in supporting the growth of the Nature-based Solutions Initiative at Oxford University. Now, he is a specialist in WWF-UK’s nature-based solutions accelerator.
His current work focuses on the nexus of nature-based solutions practice, examining the relationship between outcomes for people and nature, and financial mechanisms, with a focus on land-based interventions. Alex emphasizes the social and ecological dimensions of nature-based solutions, stakeholder engagement, collaboration, and scaling impact. He remains broadly interested in economic and societal transformations for sustainability.
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Paa Kwesi currently works as a Specialist in Finance for Nature-based Solutions (NbS) with the WWF Nature-based Solutions Accelerator project. He is an inclusive finance professional with sixteen years of experience in project management and technical assistance in agricultural finance, enterprise development, and digital financial services. His areas of expertise include agricultural value chain development, rural and agricultural finance, impact investment, blended finance, digital financial services, and inclusive finance approaches such as value chain finance and community-based microfinance models, including self-help groups and village savings and loan associations. At WWF, Paa Kwesi’s work focuses on designing technical assistance packages to enhance the bankability of NbS and developing innovative financial solutions to improve access to finance for NbS interventions.
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Mark Hirons
Senior Researcher at the Environmental Research Institute, Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and the Agile Initiative
Read BiographyMark is a Senior Researcher at the Environmental Research Institute, Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and the Agile Initiative. He is addressing inter-linked social and environmental challenges through interdisciplinary and policy-engaged research. His research focuses on issues of well-being, inequality and justice with respect to climate change and natural resource governance.
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Francisco is a seasoned conservation biologist with a strong academic foundation and extensive fieldwork experience. He is a Senior Researcher at Nature-based Insights, where he leverages his expertise in ecology to support businesses in integrating nature-based solutions into their operations. Specializing in geospatial and statistical analysis of large datasets, Francisco bridges scientific knowledge with practical, actionable solutions, helping companies set and achieve ambitious yet feasible nature targets. With a background in Environmental Engineering and a Ph.D. in Biodiversity, Genetics, and Evolution, he is deeply committed to promote positive environmental impacts and fostering collaboration between the scientific and private sectors.
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Sophus is an ecological economist specialising in biodiversity finance, nature-positive organisations, infrastructure sustainability, biodiversity finance, biodiversity offsetting and ecological economics. Sophus’s academic research features regularly in popular media including the Guardian, BBC Countryfile, the Times, Sky News, the Financial Times and the ENDS report. He currently holds four expert advisory roles for the UK government: as Specialist Advisor to the Environmental Audit Committee, on Natural England’s Biodiversity Net Gain Monitoring and Evaluation expert advisory group; the UK Treasury’s Biodiversity Economics working group; and is an expert advisor to the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits. Sophus also works as a freelance consultant, including hosting seminars and advising multilateral development institutions and companies on biodiversity net gain, biodiversity offset policy, nature-positive strategy and biodiversity safeguards. He lectures on Masters programmes at the University of Oxford, Surrey, and Imperial as well as Oxford University executive education and school access programmes, and co-supervises a team of nature finance researchers. Sophus is co-host of the European Society for Ecological Economics podcast “Economics for Rebels”. He was named as one of the 100 most influential environmental professionals in the UK by newspaper the ENDS Report in 2022, was named the most impactful early career environmental scientist in the UK by NERC in 2023, and won and came runner up in two impact awards at the University of Oxford in 2024.
Details
When
Next course:
September 2025. Exact dates to be confirmed.
Tuesdays 12:00-14:00 & Thursdays 12:00-14:00 (UK Time)
Reading week (no sessions): TBC
Future course:
September 2025
Location
Online, via MS Teams
Price
£3,200 private sector fee
£2,500 public sector fee
(lower rates and scholarships for those based in lower-income nations)
Please read our pricing policy
Apply
Please apply using our online form.
For further information contact nbscourse@biology.ox.ac.uk
We also provide bespoke versions of this course for organisations. Please contact us if you would like to discuss this opportunity further.
Themes
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Introducing NbS & Climate Mitigation
Explore the core concepts of nature-based solutions (NbS), tracing their origins, evolving definitions, and broader policy contexts. We will discuss how NbS can be approached with equity in mind, upholding biodiversity and community rights while cultivating shared well-being. We will also consider how thriving ecosystems—forests, coastal wetlands, and beyond—are essential in mitigating climate change, nurturing both human and non-human life. Through real-world scenarios, including an interactive look at Brazil’s emissions pathways, participants will gain insight into how protecting and restoring forests is vital for meeting interconnected climate and biodiversity goals.
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NbS for Adaptation & Food Systems
Discover how NbS can boost social and ecological resilience in the face of climate change. We will examine core adaptation pathways—reducing exposure and sensitivity to risk, while strengthening adaptive capacity—and discuss the policies, funding, and stakeholder coordination needed to scale up solutions. We will apply these principles to agriculture and global value chains, focusing on agroforestry’s potential to help farmers and downstream actors adapt. Case studies in regions like West Africa’s cocoa sector will demonstrate how NbS can enhance livelihoods, ensure supply-chain stability, and safeguard ecosystems.
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Urban Resilience & Sustainable Development
Explore how NbS are transforming urban environments around the world, tackling complex challenges like heatwaves, flooding, and biodiversity loss. Through lectures and interactive workshops, participants will evaluate real-world case studies to see what success looks like and how trade-offs are managed. We’ll consider the social justice dimensions of NbS in cities—ensuring they are equitable and inclusive—and delve into the key barriers and enablers shaping uptake. By the end of the week, you’ll have clear insights into designing, implementing, and scaling NbS for sustainable, resilient urban futures.
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The Economics of NbS
This theme focuses on valuing the benefits nature provides, from water security to climate resilience, and applying new economic thinking to support NbS. We’ll review tools, frameworks, and methods for ecosystem service valuation, including practical lessons from more than a decade of water-related NbS. Then we’ll consider how evolving economic paradigms—like the ‘circular economy’ and ‘beyond GDP’ approaches—can drive broader NbS adoption and financing. You’ll gain a solid grounding in how to make the business case for NbS and navigate challenges such as funding mechanisms and market-based solutions.
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Policymaking for NbS – Equity & Transformation
Land systems are at the core of many NbS, yet they involve inherent trade-offs in equity and resource use. This week unpacks why justice must be at the forefront of policy design to ensure long-lasting benefits for both people and nature. We then shift to exploring policy principles that can enable transformative change, emphasizing the need for coherent “policy mixes” rather than isolated interventions. Through interactive breakout sessions, participants will examine real-world cases to see how policy can be aligned to scale and sustain equitable, effective NbS.
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Governance of NbS
Explore the governance structures that shape how NbS are conceived, implemented, and evaluated. We’ll highlight the role of power relations, participation, and recognition in shaping outcomes, examining how NbS often intersect with broader governance contexts. We also look at the essential role of private finance and how governance frameworks can ensure high-integrity NbS. Through discussions and peer-to-peer learning, you will refine your understanding of what inclusive, transparent, and accountable governance means for successful nature-based interventions.
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NbS in Business, Supply Chains & Emerging Nature Markets
As the private sector grapples with biodiversity and climate risks, new regulations, voluntary standards, and market mechanisms are driving change. This week starts by exploring the challenges businesses face in setting and meeting net-zero and nature-positive targets—plus opportunities for insetting and offsetting through high-quality NbS. Then, we take a global tour of nature markets, analyzing how different countries are financing conservation and restoration. Participants will design their own hypothetical “nature market,” learning firsthand about the institutions, trade-offs, and governance needed to make these markets deliver real benefits.
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Nature Finance, Risks & Opportunities
The final week tackles the financial dimensions of NbS at scale. We examine how biodiversity loss and environmental degradation pose material risks for firms and financial institutions, and how central banks and regulators are starting to respond. Participants will gain insights into the latest frameworks for nature-related risk disclosure, stress-testing, and scenario analysis. We’ll also compare different financing mechanisms—both market and non-market—assessing their pros and cons for investors, communities, and nature. A practitioner panel rounds out the course, providing expert perspectives on mobilizing finance for sustainable, resilient, and inclusive NbS.