Launch of the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions

Launch of the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions

By Amelie Claessens, IUCN Urban Alliance

In the best of times, humanity would have its work cut out to address the twin crises of ecocide and climate breakdown. The challenge becomes immeasurably harder in the midst of a global pandemic that has left economies reeling in its wake, plunged tens of millions of people back into poverty and exacerbated inequalities.

Over recent years, the declining health of our planet has become shockingly apparent. Droughts, wildfires, floods, landslides, heat waves, and species extinctions have become regular features of the daily news cycle. Nature is firing a volley of warning shots. People are suffering. Business-as-usual is no longer a viable option.

To help their economies recover from the global pandemic, governments are unleashing vast stimulus packages. These present a critical opportunity to shift the trajectory of humanity away from social and ecological ruin, towards a more prosperous future in which people live in harmony with nature. To ‘green’ the global recovery, investors should look towards Nature-based Solutions (NbS).

Nature-based Solutions are actions to protect, sustainably manage and restore natural or modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits.

Cohen-Shacham et al., 2016

On 23 July 2020, following years of research, analysis and extenstive consultations, the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions was officially launched. It aims to ensure the quality and credibility of NbS while expediting their deployment.

With the concept of NbS gaining momentum and uptake, there has been a corresponding need to ensure that the concept is properly understood, communicated and implemented. By building on the definition and setting out eight best practice criteria, the Global Standard essentially gives decision makers, stakeholders and investors a common language and framework to design, deploy and evaluate NbS. This is essential, because misuse of the NbS approach, however well-intended, can be harmful to either biodiversity or people.

For nature-based solutions to fulfil their potential, we must ensure that the actions put in place today bring about the desired benefits for society and biodiversity. This Global Standard offers a rigorous, consistent and accountable framework that will help avoid any misuse and take nature-based solutions from the local to global scale.

Steward Maginnis, Global Director: Nature-based Solutions Group, IUCN
IUCN’s Stewart Maginnis speaking at the online launch event of the IUCN Global Standard.

Through self-assessment, users of the Global Standard are presented and guided through eight criteria and associated indicators. The criteria can be applied to assess the aptness, scale, and viability (social, economic and environmental) of an NbS intervention, thereby addressing the pillars of sustainable development. They also encourage resilient project management by highlighting potential trade-offs, inclusivity and adaptivity, while exploring linkages to international targets and commitments.

The IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions is thus a powerful tool with which to increase the alignment between conservation and development objectives. Governments, companies, NGOs and others can rely on it to consistently design effective and integrated NbS projects that are ambitious in both scale and sustainability. Together these projects could provide over a third of our climate mitigation needs while benefitting people and nature, in other words they can help us to green the global recovery and give credence to the notion of building back better.

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