NbS at Gobeshona Global Conference-1

The International Centre for Climate Change and Development hosted a session at Gobeshona Global Conference 1 on building capacity for nature-based solutions (NbS). The session focused on how to enhance understanding of how to successfully implement NbS, and how to increase their implementation, especially with respect to climate change adaptation, mitigation, and sustainable development.

Key messages from the event:

1. Local communities must be at the centre of every NbS project. Although emphasis is often put on community-led action in words and on paper, this far more rarely effectively translates into practice. This is partly because implementing effective community-led action is challenging; to be done successfully requires a high level of commitment, patience and expertise from external actors such as NGOs. Key elements to success include following guidelines for a participatory approach, and ensuring local ownership of the project. If this is done successfully, then differing opinions and needs of stakeholders can be balanced, and projects are more likely to be sustainable in the long-term, after external support is withdrawn.
2. NbS must be informed by local and indigenous knowledge, as well as scientific understanding. To achieve this, there is a need for synthesising evidence into single databases that are accessible to everyone, as well as implementing adaptive management that responds to changing needs and evolving understanding.
3. The term NbS should only be associated with high quality projects that benefit nature and people in the long-term. The IUCN Global Standard can be used to identify projects that meet the criteria for sustainable NbS, to improve existing projects so that they meet the Standard, and to inform the design of new projects.
4. Growth of the NbS community at all scales from local to global is critical for scaling the implementation of successful NbS. Community enables knowledge sharing between people involved in NbS from all areas of society, such as natural scientists, social scientists, engineers, governments, companies and local people.

The session featured members of NbS Peru and NbS Bangladesh, who are collating evidence on case studies and their effectiveness in Peru and Bangladesh, and building national networks of NbS researchers and practitioners to facilitate knowledge sharing and policy creation. Please contact the Peru and Bangladesh teams with case studies or news about NbS in these countries, or if you as an individual or organisation would like to be part of the Bangladesh NbS Network.

This event was in the top three most-attended sessions of over 90 sessions in the Gobeshona Global Conference, which is running over 7 days and will continue to take place remotely each January in years to come. The session was rich in information and case studies; to learn more, watch the recording that will soon be available on the Gobeshona website.