Nature-based solutions are a powerful tool in the fight against climate change. These actions protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems to address societal challenges, including climate change, while providing benefits for both human well-being and biodiversity.
The Key Ways Nature-Based Solutions Can Help
- Decreasing Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Protecting and restoring forests, wetlands, and other ecosystems can prevent emissions that would otherwise occur from their destruction.
- Capturing and Storing Carbon Dioxide: Growing new forests, restoring degraded lands, and implementing sustainable agriculture and forestry practices can remove carbon dioxide from the air and store it in plants and soils.
- Enhancing Ecosystem Resilience: Healthy, well-managed ecosystems can better withstand and recover from climate impacts like floods, droughts, and wildfires, thereby protecting human communities.
Estimates suggest that nature-based solutions could provide up to 37% of the climate change mitigation needed by 2030 to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. However, they need to be combined with rapid cuts to greenhouse gas emissions from human activities to fully address the climate crisis.
Co-Benefits Beyond Climate
Nature-based solutions offer a range of co-benefits beyond climate, such as supporting biodiversity, improving water and air quality, and enhancing human health and livelihoods. These additional benefits make nature-based solutions an attractive and holistic approach to addressing the complex challenges we face.
Ensuring Effective, Equitable, and Sustainable Implementation
Careful implementation and governance are important to ensure these solutions are effective, equitable, and sustainable. By working together to harness the power of nature, we can make significant strides in the fight against climate change while also reaping a multitude of other benefits for our communities and the planet.
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