Nature-based Solutions

Nature-based SolutionsTM leverage nature and the power of healthy ecosystems to protect people, optimise infrastructure and safeguard a stable and biodiverse future.

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About Nature-based Solutions

Nature-based Solutions are actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously benefiting people and nature.

Nature-based Solutions address societal challenges through the protection, sustainable management and restoration of both natural and modified ecosystems, benefiting both biodiversity and human well-being. Nature-based Solutions are underpinned by benefits that flow from healthy ecosystems. They target major challenges like climate change, disaster risk reduction, food and water security, biodiversity loss and human health, and are critical to sustainable economic development.

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USD 57 billion

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in flooding damages averted by mangroves in China, India, Mexico, US and Viet Nam each year

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One third

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of climate mitigation needed to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement can be provided by Nature-based Solutions

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USD 170 billion

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estimated global benefits in ecosystem services from Nature-based Solutions focused on climate

If delivered appropriately, Nature-based Solutions can significantly contribute to addressing multiple societal challenges. 

Our work 

IUCN pioneered the concept of Nature-based Solutions 20 years ago, first developing a formal definition and then the Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions as a safeguard for their use. Nature-based Solutions have significant, but currently underutilised, potential to help address global challenges. IUCN provides tools and on-the-ground support to help governments, communities, business and NGOs implement effective Nature-based Solutions that are ambitious, safe, sustainable, and that benefit people and the planet. Building on the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based SolutionsTM and its early applications, IUCN also offers stakeholders from all sectors the opportunity to earn a Professional Certificate on NbS through the IUCN Academy.