Abstract
Nature-based solutions (NbS) to climate change currently have considerable political traction. However, national intentions to deploy NbS have yet to be fully translated into evidence-based targets and action on the ground. To enable NbS policy and practice to be better informed by science, we produced the first global systematic map of evidence on the effectiveness of nature-based interventions for addressing the impacts of climate change and hydrometeorological hazards on people. Most of the interventions in natural or semi-natural ecosystems were reported to have ameliorated adverse climate impacts. Conversely, interventions involving created ecosystems (e.g., afforestation) were associated with trade-offs; such studies primarily reported reduced soil erosion or increased vegetation cover but lower water availability, although this evidence was geographically restricted. Overall, studies reported more synergies than trade-offs between reduced climate impacts and broader ecological, social, and climate change mitigation outcomes. In addition, nature-based interventions were most often shown to be as effective or more so than alternative interventions for addressing climate impacts. However, there were substantial gaps in the evidence base. Notably, there were few studies of the cost-effectiveness of interventions compared to alternatives and few integrated assessments considering broader social and ecological outcomes. There was also a bias in evidence toward the Global North, despite communities in the Global South being generally more vulnerable to climate impacts. To build resilience to climate change worldwide, it is imperative that we protect and harness the benefits that nature can provide, which can only be done effectively if informed by a strengthened evidence base.
Highlights
Anthropogenic climate change is causing a wide array of damaging impacts across the globe, such as sea-level rise, increased climate variability, and more frequent or intense droughts, floods, and wildfires (IPCC, 2018)
Our overarching question was “What is the state of the scientific evidence base on the effectiveness of nature-based interventions for addressing the adverse impacts of climate change and hydrometeorological hazards?” In mapping and characterizing the evidence from the literature on this question, our goal is to enable well-targeted scientific research to play a stronger role in informing climate and biodiversity policy and pledges, and to support the design and implementation of successful and resilient nature-based solutions (NbS) that deliver benefits for both nature and people
Responding to calls for more innovative ways to visualize evidence bases (James et al, 2016), we present the results of our systematic map as an open-source, userfriendly online platform that will be updated over time
Summary
Anthropogenic climate change is causing a wide array of damaging impacts across the globe, such as sea-level rise, increased climate variability, and more frequent or intense droughts, floods, and wildfires (IPCC, 2018). This is having increasingly severe social and economic consequences, especially in low and lower middle-income nations which tend to be most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change (IPCC, 2018; McKinsey, 2020; WEF, 2020). Ambitious climate change mitigation action will significantly reduce the severity of impacts that nations, societies, and ecosystems have to face, but even if measures to limit temperature increase to 1.5°C are successful, some impacts such as sea-level rise will continue to increase due to climate system feedbacks and inertia (IPCC, 2018). There is growing recognition that nature-based solutions (NbS) can complement or improve upon these approaches (Hobbie & Grimm, 2020; Kapos, Wicander, Salvaterra, Dawkins, & Hicks, 2019; The Royal Society, 2014)
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