In the search for solutions to address climate change, governments and donors have promoted nature-based solutions (NbS) as interventions for supporting sustainable development.

However, concerns about NbS remain, as highlighted in the recent Asia-Pacific Climate Week (APCW) 2023, held in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, from November 13 to November 17, 2023.

APCW is a regional conference organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where policymakers, practitioners, businesses, and civil society exchange on climate solutions, barriers, and opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region.

APCW provided a platform for diverse perspectives on NbS, revealing competing interests and questions surrounding the long-lasting impacts of NbS and its benefits.

Below we identify three key takeaways from the APCW.

Promoting equitable representation among vested interests

International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) broadly defines NbS as “actions to protect, sustainably manage and restore natural or modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits.”

Both private and public sectors have promoted the so-called “triple-impact” measures for NbS: enhancing climate resilience, protecting the environment, and ensuring the well-being of people.

UNEP has called for a tripling of the NbS investment by 2030, from USD 133 billion in 2021.

However, investors and funders on climate adaptation and mitigation projects seem to be shying away from NbS projects due to quality concerns, which may explain the low carbon price in voluntary carbon markets. This comes as the leading carbon offset developer, South Pole, faced allegations that it exaggerated its climate claims in its forestry projects. Meanwhile, various investigations revealed that 90% of carbon credits from the largest verifier, Verra, are worthless.

Various actors at APCW, including policymakers, academia, CSO and NGO representatives, corporate representatives, and Indigenous Peoples, voiced their concerns over NbS mechanisms and their ambiguous catch-all definitions.

Indigenous youths and elders at APCW emphasized that the broad definition of NbS, encompassing various measures of conservation, climate adaptation, and mitigation, is dangerously discretionary – where corporations can co-opt measures and promote non-native monoculture plantations or disguise emissions while continuing the business-as-usualwhile commodifying Indigenous land, terminology, and worldviews.

Indigenous Peoples stressed the importance of incorporating traditional knowledge into NbS practices and centering Indigenous leadership where existing ecosystem-based conservation and stewardship initiatives can be sustained and scaled. This process also requires free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC). They also emphasized that genuine solutions cannot be achieved without legally recognizing indigenous rights to their lands, resources, and territories.

For example, Indigenous leaders from the Borneo island of Malaysia shed light on a 2 million-hectare carbon deal between the Sabah state government and private investors on forest ecosystems. The leaders highlighted that the deal did not inform or meaningfully include Indigenous communities before the agreement. The deal has raised concerns among human rights organizations surrounding violation of the rights of indigenous peoples, including the FPIC.

As the Asia-Pacific region is shaping compliance and voluntary carbon markets, with Thailand and Switzerland authorizing the world’s first Article 6 pact, there is growing demand among buyers for higher integrity carbon credits that meet robust social and environmental standards and ensure the equal partnership with local and Indigenous communities who are stewards of the ecosystems.

The importance of ‘blue carbon’ in NbS

While NbS can be implemented in different land and water ecosystems, governments have placed particular emphasis on oceans and blue carbon. Blue carbon, such as mangrove forests, seagrass meadows and marshes, are highlighted in climate mitigation, with its carbon sequestration capabilities being 4-5 times higher than land-based forests.

The government, private sector, and academic actors at APCW emphasized that enhancing the capacity of the blue carbon ecosystem will not only bring mitigation benefits but also protect Asia-Pacific’s coastlines by restoring coastal habitats.

Given the rapid growth of cities along the Asian coastlines and the presence of many Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Asia-Pacific region, the focus on blue carbon and coastal ecosystem-based NbS interventions is crucial for coming years.

Gender and equity implications of putting a price on nature

However, putting a price on nature has gendered implications, especially for women and marginalized people within communities who play a significant role in natural resource management but do not benefit as equitably as their counterparts.

Carbon credit initiatives within NbS can exacerbate the dynamics of resource management practices, where community members living in the ecosystems experience gender-differentiated costs and benefits. Without gender-transformative and equity-based mechanisms to analyze the local contexts and design programmes, the interventions would place a disproportionate burden on women and marginalized people within communities.

As highlighted by a SEI study on NbS, a nuanced understanding of the social impacts is essential for ensuring the sustainability and inclusivity of NbS initiatives. NbS design, implementation, and monitoring mechanisms should aim for enhanced transparency and commitments on equity that safeguard ecosystems and the rights of local and Indigenous communities. Local and Indigenous communities’ existing knowledge and practices in these critical ecosystems must be recognized to ensure the integrity of any future NbS initiatives.

The authors are part of the recently launched project, Innovating for Equity (I4E) Initiative, which is committed to advancing inclusive and resilient NbS within the aquaculture sector in the Asia-Pacific region. The initiative broadens the spectrum of stakeholder viewpoints influencing AQUADAPT. It reinforces the knowledge and capabilities of AQUADAPT project teams, empowering them to conduct research that is pertinent, and influential, and embraces gender and social inclusivity and equity in the realm of NbS for aquaculture.