In Vietnam, a coastal community struggling with flooding implemented a mangrove restoration project. The project saved $215 million in flood damages. What if a strategy such as this could be deployed more broadly to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges, like climate change? Nature-based solutions (NbS) involve protecting, restoring, and sustainably managing landscapes to help us address society’s challenges.

NbS typically involve carbon sinks, or reservoirs that draw down and store carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases driving climate change. Forests are the world’s most well-known carbon sinks. Less recognized are peatlands, a type of wetland consisting of organic matter such as soil, leaves, and branches. Here is a surprise: despite only making up 3% of global land area (28% less than forests) peatlands can store twice as much carbon as the world’s forests! Protecting forests and peatlands is vital to addressing climate change. Losing these ecosystems, typically through agricultural or industrial development, hampers the Earth’s ability to store carbon and emits greenhouse gases in the process.

Peatlands are carbon-rich ecosystems with massive carbon storage potential. Photo courtesy of Wetlands International.

NbS not only reduce the risk of climate change but can protect communities against its negative impacts. Climate change makes natural disasters more likely to happen, but ecosystems can serve as first-line protection. Wetlands moderate storm and flooding damages, saving homes and fishing grounds in coastal communities. Protecting ecosystems and making use of what exists in nature is a cost-effective method for guarding communities against climate impacts.

In the United States, natural wetlands prevented losses of $625 million during Hurricane Sandy. Photo courtesy of Bridget Besaw.

Despite the evidence in favor of NbS, implementation is slow. Of the 167 countries that submitted their country climate pledges under the 2016 Paris Agreement, less than half integrated nature-based solutions into their plans.

Part of the reason for the slow uptake is because NbS alone will not completely solve the climate crisis. There needs to be massive action to reduce the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and trees and peatlands can only take in so much. To meet the goals set by the 2016 Paris Agreement, we need to shift our energy and transportation systems away from carbon-intensive activities, such as coal burning.

But this doesn’t mean that NbS should be disregarded. Climate change is an existential threat, but nature has immense restorative power. It presents cost-effective climate tools we can use towards addressing the climate crisis. We need to let ecosystems take center stage. I will explore how NbS can help solve climate change, from the benefits and challenges that come with them to how we can better integrate them into our society.