Nature-based Solutions

The World Economic Forum estimates that 29% of endangered species on the IUCN’s list will be lost if we carry on with building more and more infrastructure that impacts nature.  Hence, we must either desist or find new and less damaging way of development if we wish to continue building for economic growth. 

Nature conservation is the common approach. This involves preservation of forests, wetlands and coasts. Wildlife corridors allow animals to retain access to natural breeding grounds without disruption by human development. But these are part of a much larger picture of biodiversity and the good that can be done through nature-based solutions.

Nature-based solutions are a means of using natural forces to tackle climate and environment related challenges. For example, by retaining natural features like shorelines and rivers, we are able to build resilience against flooding and extreme heat avoiding climate-related costs of damage and repair. The use of bioengineering for landslide control, using natural means like deep-rooted vegetation to prevent slope erosion, is a further means of employing nature’s forces and at the same time saving on the costs of raw materials such as steel and concrete and the energy required to install slope fixtures.  In addition, green roofs and vertical green walls provide not just escape from urban heat effects but savings on air-conditioning and other cooling costs.

But the elephant in the room is the value of what is termed “eco-system services” i.e., the services offered by ecosystems like resources such as food and water, maintaining habitats that support biodiversity, offering opportunities for recreation, and helping to regulate human-caused impacts. We ignore this at the risk of missing a rich opportunity.  In order to understand the value of eco-services and the environmental, social and economic benefits on offer, we must start with good data. Mapping eco-systems at the best of times is fraught especially given the nature of the data which includes habitat coverage, loss, enhancement and creation. Natural capital accounting methods can be helpfully employed to provide a monetary value to eco-system services such as energy, water supply, flood regulation, and disease and pest control, but in the end, the investment in nature-based solutions must be justified by the savings in environmental and economic damages later. Using such methods, the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity or TEEB states that oceans, for instance, hold huge potential for ecosystem services, such as fish harvests, storm protection, carbon sequestration and storage, and tourism and recreation - starting at roughly $100 per hectare per year for open ocean and more than $1,000,000 per hectare per year for coral reefs.

From a corporate perspective, there is a growing interest in TNFD or Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures showing that the conversation is shifting towards using ESG as a means to address biodiversity. Many companies are exploring the usefulness of TNFD as a corporate disclosure tool to self-declare their goals, strategies and intended outcomes in regard to protecting biodiversity affected by their operational footprint. TNFD statements are hence reassuring to investor circles to show that corporates are pursuing a line towards ESG and sustainability. However, most corporates are only focused on protecting their own assets at the expenses of other’s. The paradigm shift for companies is to look beyond narrow portfolios and explore the wider scope of how eco-systems interact with each other outside of corporate boundaries. For example, investment in reforestation or rewilding can align with business models to acquire carbon offset credits but also can deliver significant social and economic benefits to stakeholders.

The private sector, furthermore, is good at innovation, an important factor in how to utilize eco-system services. Companies in Japan and elsewhere are looking at seagrass, for instance, as a way of carbon sequestration but also as a food source. Biosolar roofs, an integration of solar energy with rooftop solar panels and green roofs, combine the benefits of solar PV and green roofs to provide environments that generate electricity and create living sustainable habitats. These and other initiatives, in the end, promote jobs and livelihoods as well as health and wellbeing, increased asset value and carbon emission reductions.

Our urban environment may not seem to be the obvious home for nature-based solutions but with imagination, we can come up with solutions for our many pressing challenges of development. There is always the notion of how to use capital for mutually beneficial sustainable purposes. Who knows, in the future, perhaps biodiversity credits will be more commonplace in the market than carbon credits. That would be a golden opportunity for us.