Towards a nature-positive economy
“We need now to integrate private sector actors, take advantage of innovative technologies and AI, and train future generations.” Healthy and well-managed ecosystems provide a range of services that support climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. The achievements and upcoming priorities when it comes to nature-based solutions in the words of Nathalie Doswald.
Adapting to climate change means adjusting to a changing world whilst still seizing the hidden opportunities that arise from a long term process that involves ecological, social and economic systems. Healthy and well-managed ecosystems provide a range of services that support climate change adaptation. For example, healthy ecosystems can support water conservation, food security and coastal erosion control; in cities, urban forests or parks can support dealing with heat waves by providing shade.
Climate change also has an impact on the intensification and frequency of extreme weather events. “And here is the link between climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, which is about the importance of reducing the risk of a hazard — such as an extreme event — leading to large impacts on communities and societies — namely a ‘disaster’” highlights Nathalie Doswald, Technical Advisor on Nature-based Solutions at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and Chair of the Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR).
Doswald has worked at the intersection between science and policy for over a decade, supporting decision-making on nature-based solutions for climate and disaster resilience.
“Whether hazards are caused by climate change or not, ecosystems can provide hazard mitigation through buffering services, such as a mangrove forest buffering against storm surges; protective services, such as forests protecting downhill communities from rockfall, avalanches or landslides; and water retention services, such as wetlands storing flood water or forests on slopes preventing excess run-off by supporting water infiltration,” says Doswald.
“Ecosystem services provide high-value services at different levels, and for us it is about understanding and acting on how we can harness these different ecosystem services to suit different purposes,” she continues.
On 13 October, the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction 2023 focused on “Fighting inequality for a resilient future”. Given your role as senior officer for nature-based solutions at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) — the world’s largest humanitarian organization — could you explain the benefits of integrating nature-based solutions in humanitarian action?
In addition to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, Nature-based Solutions can help provide health benefits, as well as food and water security. On the one hand, if nature is in a bad condition, it can compromise humanitarian operations and create additional risks.
For example, if we are trying to set up a refugee camp which is near a slope where nature has already been degraded, cutting down more trees to get the wood to build new shelters would contribute to increasing environmental degradation, and could subject people and operations to further risk of landslides.
On the other hand, instead of just providing food and water to populations in difficult situations, we must work to improve the productivity of the land and ensure that people are able to access food and water from the surrounding environment. Supporting nature — for example through land management techniques and rainwater harvesting — can help humanitarian action because it gives people the chance to rebuild their livelihoods, rebuild their income, and be less dependent on humanitarian assistance.
We recently released a guide, co-developed by Sphere, FEBA (an initiative of IUCN), PEDRR, EHAN and IFRC, that provides practical guidance to implement nature-based solutions that address societal challenges in humanitarian action, including disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
Nature-based solutions are ‘actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems, which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services and resilience and biodiversity benefits.(UNEA 5.5)
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