What are Nature-Based Solutions?

Nature-Based Solutions

Working together with nature

As part of the World Bank, the Global Program on Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Resilience (GPNBS), a thematic area of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), is informing and promoting investments in nature-based solutions (NBS) that integrate both natural and hybrid approaches for addressing disaster and climate resilience challenges. NBS can include different types of interventions, for example:

For coastlines at risk, restoring and protecting ecosystems such as mangrove swamps, coral reefs and marshes can reduce the energy and impact of waves and storm surge, while also enhancing fisheries, restoring biodiversity, and increasing carbon sequestration.

In cities, increasing urban tree canopy, green roofs, or nature-based stormwater systems can alleviate flooding from heavy rains, improve water and air quality, reduce urban heat-island effects, and enhance ecological corridors for biodiversity.

Restoring and managing watersheds and rivers can regulate water flows and improve water quality and quantity, ensuring water resources and services are protected.

In mountains, forests and other bioengineering approaches can help to increase slope stability and reduce shallow landslides through increasing soil strength and structure and reducing water yield, erosion, and sedimentation.

As defined at the 5th United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA 5.2), nature-based solutions (NBS) are “actions aimed at protecting, conserving, restoring, and sustainably managing natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal, and marine ecosystems, which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services, resilience and biodiversity benefits”.

Multiple goals,
one integrated
approach.

Unlike conventional gray infrastructure, nature-based solutions (NBS) and hybrid options offer flexible, adaptive, and cost-effective solutions that can evolve over time to meet the challenges of a changing climate. Embedding NBS into disaster risk management and climate-related policy reforms, as well as into sector and subnational policies, presents a critical opportunity to enhance disaster and climate resilience.

Nature-based livelihoods and biodiversity

Momentum is growing for nature-based solutions

Investments in NBS continue to rise globally, but not at the scale required to build resilient economies. Countries often struggle to move beyond pilots, as policy gaps, limited incentives, and sector standards that favor traditional gray infrastructure continue to constrain broader adoption.

What are nature-based solutions?

Multiple goals,one integratedapproach.

Momentum is growing for nature-based solutions

Multiple goals,
one integrated
approach.