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Image of paper on top of forest photo — Restoring forests can be a valuable nature-based solution, delivering wider benefits for people and biodiversity as well as carbon sequestration.

Diverse tropical forests sequester more carbon than monocultures

New research has found that diverse tropical planted forests store 57% more carbon than monoculture forests.

21 March 2025

Landscape of agriculture — Agriculture is both a fundamental pillar of our food system and a major driver of biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Introducing the Agricultural Resilience Impact and Innovation Hub (AGRIIH)

A new agricultural research hub seeks to co-develop cutting-edge, industry-relevant research and innovation that supports the transformation of agriculture towards a more sustainable and resilient future.

18 March 2025

Aerial view of road and greenspace — A new menu of standards for green infrastructure in England aims to help deliver green space that is accessible, connected, multifunctional, and reflects local character.

Making green infrastructure work for nature, climate and people

NbSI's researcher Alison Smith has been working with Natural England to help curate existing standards and guidelines into a comprehensive framework consisting of a ‘Core Menu’ and five ‘Headline Standards’.

20 February 2025

Waterfall and bridge — New paper shows NbS stand out as transformative pathways to sustainable economic recovery.

Supporting the economy with nature-based solutions

Our new research just out in PLOS Climate shows how NbS have the potential to drive job creation, boost income, whilst also supporting climate and sustainable development goals.

29 October 2024

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Description coming soon — Palu is located on the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi, and is surrounded by coastline, making it vulnerable to coastal threats

Ecosystem-based tsunami mitigation for tropical biodiversity hotspots

Wanger et al. 2020 Tsunamis have claimed over 260,000 lives this last century, making them the most deadly of natural hazards. In 2018, a tsunami devastated the Indonesian city of Palu and in response the government is planning to build a 7km long, 3.2m high sea wall. This paper suggests a hybrid coastal protection strategy […]

27 February 2020

NbSI discusses Nature-based Solutions with MPs in Westminster

Together with Oxford colleagues, Michelle Cain and Michael Obersteiner, Nat Seddon took part in a roundtable meeting at the Palace of Westminster to discuss “Achieving Net Zero: The Role of Land” with the Net Zero All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG). Over the course of two hours, they discussed policy and science issues on what it will […]

25 February 2020

Mobilizing up-scaling of Nature-based Solutions for climate change throughout 2020 and beyond

There is growing global consensus on the importance of addressing climate change and biodiversity loss together. Promoting policy coherence, and broader alignment with sustainable development goals necessitates active collaboration across sectors. Recognizing the importance of this, the European Commission (DG ENV Biodiversity Unit) convened a 2-day workshop to stimulate knowledge exchange between approximately 70 partners […]

24 February 2020

Urban trees in Wisconsin USA

Trees have been shown to cause significant cooling in Madison, Wisconsin. Trees have a cooling effect due to reflecting more sunlight than darker surfaces, and the latent heat of evaporation from leaves. The study showed that daytime air temperature decreased with increasing canopy cover; for example, increasing canopy cover from 0-100% corresponded with a decrease […]

20 February 2020

Stormwater green infrastructure in the Mid-Atlantic USA

Use of vegetation in urban areas in the Mid-Atlantic watersheds of Washington DC, Montgomery County and Baltimore County MD, has reduced flooding and nutrient runoff. The ‘stormwater green infrastructure’ in these municipalities includes green roofs, bioswales, rain gardens and stormwater ponds. By increasing infiltration and groundwater recharge, and/or evaporation, they reduce the volume of run-off […]

20 February 2020

Peatland restoration in Belarus

Balarus is leading the way for peat restoration in Europe. Peatlands cover about 23% of the country, but most of it is degraded or drained. The country’s peatlands have long been seen primarily as a resource for agriculture and energy, but since the 1990s efforts have been made to protect, restore, and sustainably use the […]

19 February 2020

Forest regeneration in Ethiopia

The township of Humbo in Ethiopia had lost most of its surrounding forests by the late 1960s, but a recent initiative is turning this around. 2700 hectares of degraded native forest have been restored since 2006 through a community-based project. The forest was regenerated using a method called farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) involving pruning, management […]

19 February 2020

Restoring grassland in England

The re-conversion of winter cereal fields into grassland contributed to the cessation of winter floods in a downstream housing estate in the South Downs of England. In the mid-1980s grassland in the catchment was converted into cereal crops, resulting in the soil holding less water and reducing the amount of rain required for flooding and […]

19 February 2020

Mangrove protection in India

Mangrove forests in eastern India were shown to protect villages and crops from flooding during a cyclone with 260km/hr winds and a 9m storm surge. The mangroves had been protected from deforestation and overexploitation since 1985. A comparison of inundation and damage between villages found that those further away from mangroves suffered more extensive damage […]

18 February 2020

Rehabilitating rangelands in Kenya

Land degradation is a widespread problem in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the majority of agricultural soil being degraded. One of the main causes of degradation is overgrazing, but this can be combated by use of enclosures for livestock. This involves dividing communal land into smaller sections where grazing is concentrated, either with physical fencing or social […]

13 February 2020

Restoring ancient water supplies in Peru

A community-based NbS project in the Peruvian Andes improved water provisioning whilst permitting grazing of livestock, and has sparked funding and interest in ecosystem-based water management in Peru. An ancient mamenteo canal was restored: a technology that predates the Incan Empire and diverts water from streams during the wet season, increasing infiltration in mountain slopes […]

13 February 2020

Our letter to the new UNFCCC CoP26 president

Together with a group of UK-based research, development and conservation organisations, we wrote a letter to the new CoP26 President, the Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP, to ask him to consider some clear definitions and guiding principles around Nature-based Solutions and their implementation that should ensure they benefit the climate, nature and people, and to […]

13 February 2020

Marshall Islands, Suriname, Norway update NDCs before informal 9 Feb Deadline

Only three of the 197 Paris Agreement signatories have submitted updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in time for the informal 9th February deadline. The Marshall Islands accounts for just 0.00001% of global emissions, and so focus on making Pacific Islands more resilient to climate change-induced storms and sea level rise rather than on mitigation. The […]

11 February 2020

Quantifying cultural ecosystem services: Disentangling the effects of management from landscape features

Tew et al. 2019 Cultural ecosystem services are recognised as important, but are notoriously difficult to define, measure and assign value to. This study of Thetford forest in the east UK uncovered the relationship between cultural values and land management practices, whilst controlling for the influence of landscape features, such as rivers and roads. The […]

11 February 2020

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