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Nature-based solutions heavily feature in debates about biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation, and sustainability. In this research project, we strive to understand how nature-based solutions work together across space and time to create what we call: Naturescapes.

What is a Naturescape?

What are nature-based solutions?

To start: what exactly are nature-based solutions? NBS include a range of initiatives that target complex sustainability issues, from poverty and food insecurity, to biodiversity loss. NBS are actions that work with and learn from “nature” to improve the management and resilience of landscapes, seascapes, watersheds and urban areas.

In 2022, governments at the United Nations Environment Assemble formally defined 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.”

In fewer words, NBS look to manage and restore the natural environment while simultaneously providing social and economic benefits. NBS hold promise because they treat issues like climate change and water insecurity as interdependent problems, advocating for policy responses that acknowledge how changes in the environment have consequences for the functioning of society. The hope is that, if done well, NBS can promote climate change adaptation, protect biodiversity and improve human well-being [1].

Detroit Riverwalk (Source: Anouk Fransen)

What makes a Naturescape?

So far, research shows that NBS projects can in fact help us address some of our most complicated sustainability problems [2]. However, we don’t yet understand how, and if, multiple NBS projects can work together to create the potential for long-lasting biodiversity conservation, societal resilience, and climate change mitigation [3]. Dr Katrin Merfeld, one of my colleagues here at Utrecht University, argues that the impacts of NBS initiatives are often viewed and researched in isolation, or as ‘pocket solutions.’

What’s needed, then, are research projects that look at NBS from a broader perspective — a landscape perspective — taking into consideration the ways NbS come together as an assemblage: a collection of NBS that interact and produce unique and potentially transformative outcomes for nature and society.

Naturescapes capture the complex ecological and social relationships operating between NBS. In this project, we look to develop the concept of Naturescapes by asking questions like:

  • How do NBS interact with one another and become a ‘Naturescape?’

  • What do the relationships between NBS mean for the social, economic, and environmental outcomes of projects?

  • How might Naturescapes help foster more just and equitable societies (This is a question I’m particularly interested in!)?

A Naturescapes perspective can help us understand how to strengthen the overarching implementation of multiple, interconnected NBS. For example, if Naturescapes develop without considering the needs, identities and livelihoods of local communities, they may unintentionally exasperate social and environmental problems [4].

Naturescapes give us a more holistic understanding of NBS across space and time. With this perspective, I believe researchers, policy makers and local communities can more effectively assess the potential of projects to fundamentally transform previously harmful human-nature interactions into relationships that are more socially just and environmentally friendly.

[1] Xie, Linjun, Harriet Bulkeley, and Laura Tozer. “Mainstreaming sustainable innovation: Unlocking the potential of nature-based solutions for climate change and biodiversity.” Environmental Science & Policy 132 (2022): 119–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.02.017

[2] Chausson, Alexandre, et al. “Mapping the effectiveness of nature‐based solutions for climate change adaptation.” Global Change Biology 26.11 (2020): 6134–6155. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15310

[3] Seddon, Nathalie, et al. “Understanding the value and limits of nature-based solutions to climate change and other global challenges.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 375.1794 (2020): 20190120. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0120

[4] Anguelovski, I., & Corbera, E. (2023). Integrating justice in Nature-Based Solutions to avoid nature-enabled dispossession. Ambio, 52(1), 45–53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01771-7

Author: JJ Blackwatters

JJ is a postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University’s Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. His research focuses on issues of environmental (in)justice, especially as they relate to marine conservation. JJ loves football, writing science fiction and travelling with his wife, Casey, and son, Gael.