Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are undeniably « à la mode ». As they have been showcased here before, they are scalable and effective means that use, protect, sustainably manage and restore natural or modified ecosystems to address the interlinked climate and biodiversity crises while delivering important benefits for human well-being and livelihoods.

Maybe a decade ago, I first became aware of sea level rise being flagged as a serious warning sign. I confess that, back then, a couple of centimeters per year didn’t seem that alarming. Now, I grasp much better the dangers - and in many cases, the already existing effects - of climate change on coastlines.

Do I repeat like a parrot in (almost) every one of these blog posts how we urgently need equitable, grounded climate solutions?

The idea that nature can offer solutions to our problems isn’t exactly new. Today, we call them “nature-based solutions” or refer to “ecosystem services”, but for centuries — even millennia — many communities have lived, farmed, and built in ways that reflect this logic.

Each year, one third of the food produced in the world is wasted. Meanwhile, alarming figures keep piling up: biodiversity loss, emissions from the agri-food system, and an ever so slightly earlier “Overshoot Day” —the calendar day when humanity officially starts living beyond the Earth’s ecological capacity to regenerate for that year.