What are nature-based solutions?

Nature-based solutions are actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore ecosystems to address major societal challenges like climate change, food and water security, human health, disaster risk reduction, and biodiversity loss.

Delivering NbS is core business in the NRM sector, and Australia’s 54 regional NRM organisations are ideally placed to scale up the implementation of nature-based solutions across Australia, to strengthen the resilience of our communities, businesses, and landscapes.

NbS can include things like:

• Restoring mangroves to help protect local communities from erosion and storm surges, while providing a nursery habitat for fisheries and storing carbon.
• Revegetating catchments and riverbanks, and reconnecting wetlands and floodplains to improve resilience for communities by reducing the energy and extent of flooding.
• Working with traditional custodians and owners to reintroduce cultural burning practices, which can reduce fire risks for communities, improve carbon storage, and help biodiversity.
• Protecting forests, which provide ecosystem services like water and air filtration, prevention of erosion and landslides, habitat for biodiversity, and carbon storage.
• Growing street trees and urban forests to help cool cities, which improves human health outcomes and carbon storage.

This collection of resources draws together a variety of information from Australia and internationally, which can be used to learn more about NbS and to help practitioners designing and implementing NbS. It includes case studies, reports, and links to other websites and resources.