MENU

Nature-based Rural and Indigenous Infrastructure Solutions

Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)

What are Nature-based Solutions?

The United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA) and 193 Member States agreed to define NbS as “actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage 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 and resilience and biodiversity benefits.”[1] Examples of NbS include preserving and restoring wetlands so that they may be directly integrated into a community stormwater management plan; and implementing green infrastructure to help reduce urban heat-island effects, manage stormwater run-off, and reduce snow drifts on road infrastructure; and restoring degraded waterways.

[1] United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP. (2022). Nature-based Solutions: Opportunities and Challenges for Scaling Up. https://www.unep.org/resources/report/nature-based-solutifons-opportunities-and-challenges-scaling