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On the misuse of nature-based carbon ‘offsets’
Nature-based solutions (NbS*) are being misused for greenwashing. Promoting NbS as carbon 'offsets' while continuing business as usual in fossil fuel use is not a solution to climate change. In fact, it can encourage continued or even increased fossil fuel consumption leading to more emissions o [...] read more
What Can Nature offer COP26, and vice versa?
‘Nature is our life support system' says Professor Nathalie Seddon in a new video from the University of Oxford, 'and to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, it is critical that we work with nature'. Professor Seddon is one of around 30 official ‘friends’ of COP26, is a member of the U [...] read more

New Global Map of best-practice Nature-based Solutions launches at COP26

Today sees the release of our new interactive global map of best practice examples of nature-based solutions across the world, funded by the British Academy, launched at the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow. The interactive map links nature-based solutions to climate change adaptation and mitigation outcomes based on a systematic review of the peer-reviewed and grey [...] Read more
November 8, 2021

Ensuring nature-based solutions support both biodiversity and climate change adaptation

New research examines whether nature-based solutions can deliver a win-win for biodiversity and climate change adaptation. Our recent study reviewed the effects of nature-based interventions for climate change adaptation on different metrics of ecosystem health (such as the diversity of species, their population sizes, or soil and water quality). Most interventions with positive outcomes for climate [...] Read more
November 6, 2021

Nature-based solutions can reduce vulnerability to climate change

Our recent research examines the role of nature-based solutions (NbS) in addressing climate vulnerability in Bangladesh and rural Global South in general, and on ensuring NbS support both biodiversity and climate change adaptation. We have summarised the key findings from these studies for policymakers in three briefings. Bangladesh This briefing ‘Tackling climate change with nature-based solutions in Bangladesh’ [...] Read more
November 6, 2021

Time to integrate global climate change and biodiversity science-policy agendas

Pettorelli et al., 2021 A recent study in Journal of Applied Ecology, co-authoured by NbSI’s Prof Nathalie Seddon, reviews the current set of political and scientific propositions for jointly addressing the fundamentally connected threats posed by the climate and biodiversity crises, as a more integrated global approach is essential to tackle these two global challenges. The use [...] Read more
October 21, 2021

Land-based measures to mitigate climate change: Potential and feasibility by country

Roe et al., 2021 A recent study in Global Change Biology estimates the land-based mitigation potential (technical and cost-effective), related land footprints, mitigation density potential, and feasibility of 20 land and demand management activities for over 200 countries. The study developed and adapted 25 “bottom-up” sectoral databases and 6 integrated assessment models (IAMs), with new data [...] Read more
October 18, 2021

Effects of large herbivores on fire regimes and wildfire mitigation

Rouet-Leduc et al. 2021 A recent study in Journal of Applied Ecology has shown that the presence of large herbivores, such as domestic livestock, wild and semi-wild herbivores, within landscapes can prevent and mitigate wildfires, particularly in areas facing land abandonment. Rouet-Leduc et al. found that herbivores can provide a cost-effective nature-based solution, that in some [...] Read more
September 16, 2021

Coastal wetlands mitigate storm flooding and associated costs in estuaries

Fairchild et al. 2021 A recent study published in Environmental Research Letters has found that estuary wetlands such as saltmarshes reduce flooding more than previously thought. The authors created numerical hydrodynamic models of eight Welsh estuaries to simulate storms of varying intensity and coupling flood predictions to damage valuation. They found that in all cases estuary [...] Read more
September 2, 2021

Biodiversity needs every tool in the box: use OECMs

Gurney et al. 2021 A recent comment piece in Nature argues that Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) provide a mechanism to support effective biodiversity conservation, while protecting the rights and livelihoods of local & Indigenous communities. OECMs are designated areas that are achieving the effective in-situ conservation of biodiversity outside of protected areas. The guiding principles, [...] Read more
August 23, 2021

Revealing the widespread potential of forests to increase low level cloud cover

Duveiller et al. 2021 A recent study published in Nature Communications presents the first global assessment of forest restoration via satellite observations. As forests are a key carbon sink due to their capacity to sequester carbon, they play a crucial role in efforts to mitigate climate change. Protection and restoration of forested areas is therefore a [...] Read more
August 10, 2021

Using ecosystem services to measure the degree to which a solution is nature-based

White et al. 2021 A recent study in Ecosystem Services highlights the need to better define the relative contribution of nature to Nature-based Solutions (NbS), which varies widely given that the concept covers the intersection of ecology, engineering, sociology and economics. NbS can play a role in resilience and adaption to many aspects of current global climate [...] Read more
August 6, 2021

A trade-off between plant and soil carbon storage under elevated CO2

Terrer et al. 2021 A recent study in Nature revealed that there’s a push and pull between sequestering of carbon dioxide by plants and soil in response to greenhouse gas emissions. Such a trade-off may mean that current climate models overestimate the removal of atmospheric CO₂ by forests. By analysing over 100 experiments that exposed different habitats [...] Read more
July 28, 2021

Framing “nature-based” solutions to climate change

Osaka et al. 2021 This paper explores the framing, definitions, and context of “nature-based” or “natural” solutions in the protection, conservation, restoration, management, enhancement, or imitation of natural ecosystems, and in both mitigating and adapting to climate change. The framing of particular solutions as “natural” or “unnatural” has far-reaching implications for climate policy, but has thus [...] Read more
July 27, 2021

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