Recovery, Renewal, Resilience

COVID-19 has exacerbated what has already been described as a “triple emergency: climate change; nature loss; rising poverty and inequality”, while also presenting a rare opportunity to improve preparedness and mitigation through recovery and renewal. Effective NbS involve working closely with nature, people and the climate, realising the interdependent nature of these elements. NbS are a cost effective approach and have the potential to deliver multiple benefits simultaneously when implemented effectively. A recent report brings together examples of NbS for climate, nature and people from 13 local community case studies. Consider the following examples of holistic approaches that address the these interdependent threats:

• The Medmerry project, UK, embarked on a coastal managed realignment to build new sea defences inland from the coast allowing a new ‘intertidal’ area to develop. Cross benefits of this initiative include:
  • Climate change: The intertidal habitat serves as a blue carbon store, meaning the area can itself adapt to the effect of climate change and mitigate future climate change impacts, making the area more resilient to sea level rise and storms
  • Nature: Bird populations have thrived as a result of the site creation
  • People: The project has developed flood protection to homes, critical infrastructure and local services. The work of this project has increased the economic value of production in the area, boosted tourism and reduced the emotional stress faced by vulnerable communities
• Talensi, Ghana, implemented a farmer-led and community-based dryland restoration initiative to tackle the deteriorating soil fertility and local natural resources. The communities used ‘Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration’ to restore multipurpose trees to rural areas. Cross benefits of this initiative include:
  • Climate change: Increase in water retention and soil erosion reduction as a result of soil and tree restoration on farms
  • Nature: 718 hectares of degraded land was restored and the project resulted in the planning of 23,000 additional fruit trees in the area
  • People: A reduction in annual household hunger and an increase in diverse household income sources (e.g. greater range of food crops) leading to increased levels of household resilience

Previous TMBs discuss additional NbS strategies: Issue 20, Issue 30 and Issue 33