Nature-based Solutions for Sustainable Food Resources

Nature-based solutions (NbS) for sustainable food resources complement needed actions to meet our international climate goals, protect biodiversity, and advance societal goals.

Our natural ecosystems support human societies in multiple ways by providing food, clean water, shelter, and protecting us from the impacts of extreme events such as floods, droughts and heatwave.

Topics:

About Nature-based Solutions
Economic Value of Nature and Ecosystem Services
Examples of Nature-based Solutions and Employment Action Areas
Benefits of Nature-based Solutions
Need for Nature-based Solutions
Transitioning to a Nature-positive Economy
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures
International Organizational Initiatives: WEF, IISD, Global Future Council on Nature-Based Solution, WWF

About Nature-based Solutions

Nature-based solutions involve the protection, restoration or management of natural ecosystems and semi-natural ecosystems including forests, wetlands, watersheds, and aquatic systems. Further, NbS involve the protection, restoration or management of working lands including croplands, soils, managed timberlands, and unique ecosystems or natural areas in and around urban areas.

NbS must support sustainable development goals, including human health and wellbeing, and ensure that ecosystems are kept healthy and functional for these goals to be sustained in the future.

A partnership of local communities including indigenous communities need to help implement and manage NbS in a manner that fully respects local rights, knowledge. NbS need to generate local benefits.

Nature-based climate change mitigation needs to incorporate forests, soils, oceans, water courses, wetlands, and natural areas. Carbon sequestration is an essential component. Carbon markets, along with a sufficient price on carbon are the recognized by economists as the most efficient method to meet climate mitigation goals.

The total mitigation potential of NbS in the land use sector represents an important component of carbon reductions.

Globally, land-use change for food production is a driver of habit decline, biodiversity decline, and greenhouse gas emissions.

And land-use change from agriculture and natural to urban sprawl and highways only adds to the declines.

Economic Value of Nature and Ecosystem Services

A 2020 report by the World Economic Report titled the ‘New Nature Economy Report’ reported that more than $44 trillion of economic value generation is moderately or highly dependent on nature. This value represents more than half of the world’s total GDP.

In 2018, the World Wildlife Forum (WWF) Living Planet Report 2018 estimated that ecosystem services worldwide are worth an estimated $125 trillion annually. Ecosystem services support various industries (farming, fishing, forestry, and tourism) that employ 1.2 billion people. Further, approximately 1.6 billion people rely directly on the world’s forests for food, income, and livelihoods. Healthy ecosystems also enhance resilience to future shocks, strengthen food security, mitigate climate change, reduce climate impacts, and improving our health.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), natural solutions to climate change such as ending deforestation and restoring habitats can create 80 million jobs, lift 1 billion people out of poverty.

Examples of Nature-based Solutions and Employment Action Areas

Examples of nature-based solutions include:

Protecting, managing, and restoring forests – restore forests
Agro-forestry
Adopting regenerative approaches to agriculture – restoring degraded agricultural lands to produce more food
Managing and protecting natural areas
Protecting wetlands and building artificial wetlands within urban areas for flood protection
Managing watersheds to provide clean water and habitats
Restoring mangroves to mitigate storm damage
Nature-based Infrastructure: Flood walls, Green Roofs.

Examples of Employment Action Areas:

Leveraging existing jobs programs
Linking economic support with environmental management
Combining multiple areas, such as forests and biodiversity, wetlands and biodiversity.

Benefits of Nature-based Solutions

Nature-based solutions (NbS) can potentially provide cost-effective global carbon dioxide mitigation and limit global warming to help meet targets. And these solutions can lower biodiversity loss.

Various Nature-based services include air quality, water quality, water supplies, biodiversity, genetic diversity, and soils. The loss of any of these services creates risks.

A rich supply and stability of nature-based services potentially offers lower costs, increased profits, and long-term financial stability.

And as much as 50% of GDP relies on natural capital: forests, water, biodiversity, pollinators

So, ecosystems provide us with key resources. As an example, soils provide nutrients for growing food, and can also store carbon

Also, Nature-based solutions contribute to resilience.

Need for Nature-based Solutions

A key example of a major emergency currently underway is climate change.

A second example is the Covid-19 pandemic. Zoonotic diseases and their spillovers can be related to illegal wildlife trade and environmental degradation. In specific nature-based areas, we are witnessing negative spiraling loops.

A value needs to be put on our natural ecosystem resources. For example, if there is no value put on pollinators then there is not the same recognition that pollinators need to be protected as if a $ value was assigned to pollinators.

A decrease in groundwater supplies may impact water availability for irrigation needs. Similarly, a decrease in soil moisture may impact water availability for plants. And floods and droughts may impact crop production. Further insurance costs are increasing. And the risk of food insecurity increases.

Biodiversity loss is a planetary emergency and is declining precipitously.

A decrease in the number of pollinators may impact pollination services, reproduction, and yields.

Depleting soils and declining nutrients impact both yields and food nutrient content.

The Planetary Boundaries concept outlines how specific planetary safe levels are now being exceeded.

Humanity has already changed the earlier more stable climate systems, wiped out large percentages of wild mammals. Also, humanity has altered forests, lands, plants, biodiversity, and marine environments.

The loss of nature-based services may have serious impacts on food supplies and financial returns.

Finally, NbS can assist in recovery efforts and achieving SDGs by 2030.

Transitioning to a Nature-positive Economy

Transitioning to ensure an ongoing nature-positive economy is essential. In making the transition, one needs to assess the impacts of a nature-negative economy and the value of nature-based solutions.

In addition, one needs to ensure the predictability of ongoing performance.

Areas to assess include climate mitigation, adaptation, water, air, biodiversity, genetic diversity, soils, and sustainable communities.

The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures

The goal of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures is to provide a framework for institutions to assess, manage and report on their dependencies and impacts on nature.

The intent of the framework is to appraise nature-related risks. And ultimately, the goal is to redirect global financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes and toward nature-positive outcomes.

International Organizational Initiatives

The World Economic Forum in collaboration with AlphaBeta published a report in 2020 titled: New Nature Economy Report II – The Future Of Nature And Business.

In January 2021, the International Institute on Sustainable Development (IISD) and the China Council for International Cooperation On Environment and Development (CCICED) webinar titled Nature-Based Solutions as a Catalyst for Achieving Mutual Benefits for People, Nature, and Climate: Lessons learned from China and globally. The webinar outlined how of nature-based solutions can benefit biodiversity, climate change mitigation, and adaptation outcomes. The IISD is a Canadian-based registered charitable organization providing Canada’s voice for sustainable development around the world.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) advises that natural solutions to climate change such as ending deforestation and restoring habitats can create millions of jobs and lift people out of poverty globally.

Initiatives by the Global Future Council on Nature-Based Solutions support obtaining the needed financing and catalyzing the meaningful action to enable a nature-positive economy.

The WWF Global Grasslands and Savannahs Initiative helps to elevate biomes to ensure that NbS mitigates the loss of grassland ecosystems.