Nature Based Solutions: A Primer on Nature, Anthropogenic Impact and Guiding Principles for Development
Cailee Ellis
Canadian Women Leading CleanTech (Awarded 2022) | Strategy & Business Design | Sustainability & Climate Leader
Rooted in Nature
If you know me, you know that I am an outdoor enthusiast with a profound respect for our natural environment. I have shaped my academic pursuits and built a career centered around people, development and the environment. What you might not know, however, is what inspired this. All of this is attributed to how and where I was raised.
I spent my youth on a ranch in the Qu’Appelle Valley in Saskatchewan. This Valley, being home to some of the only remaining eighteen percent of the natural grasslands in the province.
On Saturday mornings, we as children were offered a choice: go outside or clean something. So, it was on these days that I explored. There were few days I wasn't tempting the day's last light. It was often only the chill of the evening that eventually pushed me inside, longing for tomorrow to resume my adventure. I had a thousand places to explore and each was so full of life. I never set out with a plan, only to wander and be curious and learn as children did, on foot, on bike or on horseback. The only rule: leave the gates as you found them. I miss these days and this place.?
It was in this valley that I learned nature, its systems and the connections. Every year every marvel returned; Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall. Meandering rivers with tall, steep banks pocked with bird nests. Hidden ponds tucked in forests of trembling aspen. Unlucky trout stranded in wet culverts as feeder streams ran dry. Springs pushing up through the earth, in the winter turning creek beds into icey wonderlands. Bushwalking dogwood to pick Saskatoons. Canoeing through the marshes of Buffalo Pound Lake, taking advantage of every opportunity to try to snag a cattail; my mom narrating the day naming each and every bird. Sandy coulee hills that slumped like stairs for giants, covered in cactus, hardy grasses and wildflowers, leaving burrs and foxtail in my socks, along with a woodtick or two. Almost tripping over a fawn taking shelter in tall grass. The danger of crossing a salt slough on horseback. Neverending pastures, searching for newborn calves hiding in the brush. Even in the winter, the water still moved, and under the sea of white, life went on, nature knew exactly what to do. This was my home; my entire being rooted in nature.?
Humans Need Nature
Our ability as humans to develop and thrive in this world while respecting and preserving our natural environment is a core principle of sustainability. Like all things “sustainability”, phrases and ideas come in and out of favor; triple bottom line, corporate social responsibility, social license, sustainability, ESG performance. Topical today is the discussion around Nature Based Solutions (NBS), and what these can do for us for humanity, in addressing the climate crisis, and restoring and regenerating natural habitats, biodiversity and those functions that are vital for a healthy planet.?
The preservation, protection and enhancement of eco-systems which serve as a carbon sink are vital in the fight against climate change . However, it cannot be understated that a NBS at its core must serve as both a carbon sink and support or enhance biodiversity. Our warming climate has been directly linked to biodiversity decline. Climate changes and anthropogenic activities impacts on marine, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems is driving species loss, disease and loss of flora and fauna at a devastating rate. Kicking off this week in Montreal, Canada, is COP15 (The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity) some 196 countries have come together to discuss our planet’s biodiversity, and the crisis it is in. Seventy percent of earth’s native land has been transitioned to economically useful land; COP15’s agenda is to align on goals and a framework to protect 17% of earth’s native land and 10% of our oceans by 2030. Godspeed.
Now, I am not trying to be dramatic here, but let's be real. The unbridled destruction of nature for economic benefits, agricultural production for food and fiber, energy development, settlement and urbanization, and harvesting natural fisheries has put an increased stress and strain on our planet's natural systems.? Imagine the impact of 8 billion humans on our natural environment. We are asking an already strained system to do more, with less. Today over half of global GDP comes from natural resources and systems and an eighth of the world's population relies on healthy forests for their livelihoods. Now, read that again, over half. When natural capital is lost, social and economic welfare decreases . So, even if you aren’t in the environmental protection camp yet, this alone should be enough to create the baseline for a discussion around the protection and preservation nature for the sustainment of our economy, and the importance of effective regulatory design to ensure reciprocity for nature that is destroyed for economic and social purposes.
What is Nature?
It might seem silly to ask, what is nature? In order to understand Nature Based Solutions and their potential value , you have to really understand nature. Not just the nature seen through a window as you drive up the Icefields Parkway or on a postcard mailed from your favorite Hawaiian island, but the system that is nature. Nature is our physical world, loosely described as all the living things and all events and processes that occur, which are not created by humans. Our physical, natural world is made up of thousands of ecosystems, creating a global ecological system called the biosphere . The biosphere represents the integration of all living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the lithosphere (earth's outer crust), cryosphere (all frozen water on the planet), hydrosphere (all liquid and vapor state water on the planet), and atmosphere (the protective mix of life sustaining gasses that we call home). This earth and the nature within it has evolved over millions of millennia under constant, stable, atmospheric conditions to be what it was before humans even arrived.?
Each ecosystem on the planet is its own “bubble of life” where all biotic and abiotic things are linked together by energy and nutrient flows. This system works in perfect harmony to maintain a cycle of life and processes. The life, resources and processes that exist within the system provide natural capital also referred to as ecosystem goods and services. Imagine a forest and a wetland. What do these do? Wetlands offer natural storm-water retention capacity in periods of heavy rainfall, they biologically filter and treat the water within them, and provide a conduit for the surface water to penetrate the earth and become groundwater, recharging aquifers. Forests , called the lungs of our earth, purify air, provide food, freshwater, fuel and other products from wood and peat moss. The soil and vegetation in these natural areas are also carbon sinks, pulling CO2 from the atmosphere, and over their lifetime, absorbing more carbon than they will release. Grasslands, fisheries and oceans, while vastly different from forests, similarly provide tremendous biodiversity and natural resources.?
Ecosystems regulate climate, water quality and quantity, and in doing this provide significant value to humanity in what they are and what they do. They play a vital role in the management of CO2 in our atmosphere and in economic terms and they reduce the consequences of floods and droughts. Natural habitats in and around coastlines also provide mitigation to the damaging impacts of climate change, minimizing coastal erosion and flooding. Not to mention that these natural environments also provide cultural, educational and recreational value to humans, but that's another topic for another time and best experienced climbing a mountain.?
Anthropogenic Impact on Nature
Ecosystems are fragile and the biosphere's capacity to respond and adjust is limited. Any stress or strain introduced to this system will disrupt the balance, putting nature at risk. Examples of stress include: introduction of invasive species, urban development that fragments habitats and destroys native ecosystems, the overuse and introduction of nitrogen and phosphate through runoff, these are few of many. Ecosystems have a finite ability to provide us with natural resources and the ecosystem goods and services. The limit is determined by the ecosystem's biocapacity , which is driven by energy flows, water availability, climate, soil characteristics and overall management practices. Depending on the nature of the stress itself, some ecosystems can absorb and renew themselves and continue to function effectively, where others cannot. When biodiversity and processes are lost, as are the functions and benefits that were being provided by that system and the sustainment of a healthy biosphere.?
A functional biosphere is critical for our survival as a species. The first sustainability text I ever bought, for fun (yikes), was in 2008. In this, the author stated that at our current rate of anthropogenic activity, we required 2.8 biospheres to accommodate our impact without eventually leading to system collapse; I would be scared to think of what that multiplier might be today. In 2019 the Global Footprint Network of the European Commission projected humanity’s demand for resources at 75% over our existing biological resources (you can see your countries reserve here ). As humans we rely on our land and ocean to absorb more than half our carbon emissions. Today we produce more emissions than our biologically productive land can absorb. This excess accumulates in our atmosphere and is absorbed by our oceans. The Amazon rainforest, an irreplaceable ecosystem that serves as a major carbon sink, is being turned into a carbon source through deforestation and 85% of earth’s wetlands, including salt marshes and mangrove swamps have disappeared . The harsh reality too is that the warmer our climate gets, as is the strain on biodiversity; today one million species are threatened with extinction.?
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In 2009, a concept was introduced called Planetary Boundaries , setting forward a framework of nine elements, the environmental limits of each, and (where known) the thresholds that must not be crossed for humanity to safely operate, they are:
Each element is considered as a systemic process at a planetary scale or an aggregated process at a local regional scale, and characterized by processes with global thresholds and slow processes without known global scale thresholds. These parameters set our limits for nature.?
Every square inch of nature that is taken away, is a reduction in our earth’s ability to support the life-giving processes required for all living things and systems on it. Climate has and will continue to dominate the sustainability file, but there is an increasing recognition of land conservation, water management and the preservation and restoration of biodiversity, as regenerative sustainability practices leveraging nature based solutions. In theory all NBS must contribute to restoration or improvement of these, directly or indirectly and enhance natural capital.
Nature Based Solutions: What Are They?
As you come to hear of NBS in your personal or professional life, ideally you should be able to understand the NBS solution as presented, be able to assess its credibility, application and value to nature and then to society and our economy. Having seen many NBS definitions over the past few years, these tend to be presented in the context of the industry where the NBS is being considered. So they can be tough to digest depending on your industry and your perspective on what constitutes nature.?
The concept of NBS was first introduced in 2008 by the World Bank. Early thinking framed NBS as interventions that can manage natural systems to balance the benefits for both nature and society, working with nature rather than against it. The European Commission and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) set forth the first frameworks and definitions for NBS. NBS actions are designed in support of, as a copy of, or inspired by nature for the purpose of protecting, sustainability managing and restoring natural or man-made ecosystems. Their use must benefit and address challenges in environment, social and economic contexts; ideally the solution addresses multiple challenges. NBS must also be imparted with robust governance and ongoing monitoring and management, be adaptive and be scaled appropriately for the challenge being addressed and jurisdictional context.?
Since the concept’s first introduction in 2008, numerous researchers and institutions have endeavored to refine the concept. A recent literature review of over two-hundred papers identified 4 common principles across all of the actions or interventions that can serve as a guide,?they are:
Numerous environmental organizations and Universities , ascribe to the thinking that NBS must also align with the following principles, which are relatively absent from other formal definitions, first that they cannot be a substitute to the use of emissions intense fuels or delay the urgent action to decarbonize our economies. Second, that they must be designed, implemented and managed by or in partnership with Indigenous people and local communities, through a process that champions local knowledge and generates local benefits.
Throughout my review, the only constants for what aren’t NBS are those which integrate biomimicry, as these processes do not apply in living ecosystems, or include the use of genetically engineered organisms.
The frameworks are broad and certainly leave room for interpretation, debate and application. The use of NBS emerging across various disciplines in research and applications further perpetuates the challenge of maintaining the integrity of a framework that will ensure the appropriate framing, intent, purpose and application of a proposed NBS. Overall the purpose of the definitions and principles is to ensure actions are not misappropriated and avoid flippantly heralding any eco-solution as a NBS, or greenwashing actions or products as NBS when they are not.?
Ideally as sustainability practitioners we have a role to play in understanding and communicating the value of NBS in addressing corporate sustainability risks and ESG performance while ensuring credible design, application and discussion / promotion. The definitions become important in the reporting of the actions and performance in annual ESG disclosures. With mandatory disclosures coming forth in 2023 and an increase in scrutiny and regulatory interventions around the validity and materiality of ESG plans and actions, the stakes are higher in ensuring authenticity and accuracy of the language and the action. Companies with a large land disturbance footprint likely want to start thinking now about the development of biodiversity inventories in light of increasingly stringent regulations and understanding what it means to be nature-positive .?Change is coming, and expectations are changing.
Interested to learn more about Nature Based Solutions, including their application in different sectors, criticisms and challenges and what Corporates / Industry can do to establish or enhance their own sustainability strategy in light of the increasing focus nature and biodiversity, Part 2 is here !