Working with nature can help prevent the worst impacts of climate change, and biodiversity and ecosystem loss. Nature-based solutions offer ways to do this. Science and policy have begun to recognise their potential.
The European Commission defines nature-based solutions as:
“Solutions that are inspired and supported by nature, which are cost-effective, simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits and help build resilience. Such solutions bring more, and more diverse, nature and natural features and processes into cities, landscapes and seascapes, through locally adapted, resource-efficient and systemic interventions.”
Nature-based solutions must therefore benefit biodiversity and support the delivery of a range of ecosystem services.