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Nature-based Solutions: a miracle cure for the climate- and biodiversity crisis?

Marie Ladekjær Gravesen (Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), Copenhagen)

 

Abstract:

Nature-based solutions (NbS) has in recent years been promoted as a holistic way to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis by international organisations, including IUCN and WWF, along with a growing number of development partners. Where previous approaches to biodiversity conservation have had an unbalanced weight on either nature protection or economic benefits, NbS promises full inclusivity. Indeed, the IUCN’s global standards for NbS devise a detailed guide for how this inclusive and holistic approach can be secured - and great examples already exist of successfully implemented NbS in coastal- and community forestry areas.

However, many of the areas with the largest potential for biodiversity conservation are found in working landscapes, where people already use the land for their livelihoods in various ways. Less is known about the practicality of implementing NbS in such, often complex, contexts. It is therefore worthwhile to ask how the rights and benefits of local communities can be secured in practice. What are the opportunities and risks for communities in the growing emphasis on NbS, what are the lessons from the past, and what are the implications for policy, practice and the scalability of NbS to meet the crux of the crisis targeted?

 

Bio:

Marie Gravesen is a post doc. at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) in Copenhagen, department for sustainable development and governance. Here she became attached after defending her PhD in anthropology at Cologne University in 2018. At DIIS she has worked with larger research projects and policy studies related to climate change adaptation, governance, and natural resources management – one of which being a series of studies on nature-based solutions for adaptation and changing approaches to biodiversity conservation.

 

Date:

June 1, 2022
16.00

Venue:

Zoom

Registration: https://uni-koeln.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMrfu- vqTIoHtHgYVUIYlFsQbtczLYfuhqs