Even if the world stopped all carbon emissions immediately, the impacts of climate breakdown would continue for centuries, impacting nearly 800 million people. Humanity must scale up methods for adapting to climate change.
One promising approach is called Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA): the use of nature — conservation, restoration and sustainable management of ecosystems and biodiversity — to address climate impacts on people and livelihoods. Examples of EbA include rangeland restoration to bolster water supply to local communities and livestock during droughts; agroforestry to protect crops negatively affected by extreme temperatures; and mangrove restoration to protect coastal communities from storm surge, among others.
Despite its potential, ecosystem-based adaptation approaches receive less than 2% of global funding aimed at addressing climate change. Conservation International is advancing the science of EbA and working with governments and businesses to turn nature into our greatest ally against climate change.
Our current work
Assessing risk to climate impacts
Conservation International has conducted climate change vulnerability assessments in several regions — including the Abrolhos region in Brazil, in Namaqualand in South Africa, and in the Verde Island Passage in the Philippines — to understand how climate change and extreme weather events impact human populations, ecosystems and biodiversity — critical for understanding how to adapt in these places.
Prioritizing and implementing EbA
Conservation International has implemented EbA activities in Cambodia, Colombia, Central America, South Africa and Madagascar. We have prioritized and implemented EbA in a variety of ecosystems, such as mangroves, forests and grasslands, and in agricultural lands.
EbA impact monitoring and evaluation
Monitoring and evaluation are essential for assessing the effectiveness, costs and co-benefits of EbA actions. Conservation International has identified adaptation outcomes that can be achieved through EbA, such as reduced damages to coastal communities and infrastructure due to extreme weather events, and reduced impacts of climate change on water quality and quantity, as well as indicators for measuring those outcomes.
Case study: The project ‘The Sustainable Landscape in Eastern Madagascar,’ funded by the Green Climate Fund, aims to improve the resilience of climate-vulnerable smallholder farmers by implementing EbA actions. We are implementing a robust impact evaluation to understand the impacts of EbA in reducing the vulnerability and food insecurity of these farmers.
Understanding and implementing transformative adaptation
Transformative adaptation refers to actions that lead to fundamental shifts in states and interactions of people and nature while addressing root causes of vulnerability in the long term. Transformative adaptation is more anticipatory than other climate change responses, such as coping or incremental responses. The more transformative
the adaptation strategy, the higher the human inputs and re-organization required — along with significant investments of time, money and skills.
EbA actions are transformative when part of an integrated approach that fully takes into consideration best practices and future changes. They can reshape unsustainable interactions between people and nature, while moving beyond immediate material benefits or current development
pathways.
We are incorporating the concept of transformative adaptation into our EbA actions, including projects in Madagascar,
Kenya, Colombia, Mexico, South Africa and Philippines.
Reducing human insecurity
Human insecurity driven by a failure to address impacts of climate change can lead to forced migration and conflicts for scarce resources. This is of highest global concern as such failure can compromise the well-being of communities and countries, with long-lasting consequences across national borders.
Natural security — the connection between nature and human security — can enable communities to adapt by using effective, nature-based transformative adaptation actions, such as the introduction of trees in agricultural lands or the restoration of ecosystems such as grasslands. Healthy ecosystems can reduce the risk of human insecurity by providing safety nets in difficult times, preserving local cultures and collaborations, and reducing expansion to and intrusion into conservation areas, therefore avoiding forced migration and resource conflict.
Conservation International is examining evidence that nature protection, restoration and management reduce the risk of human insecurity driven by climate change.
Supporting EbA policy
Conservation International is helping shape regional and national climate change adaptation policies and national adaptation planning, so that they include nature-based actions in reducing climate change impacts that substitute or complement hard infrastructure actions. Through engagement with international policy forums, lessons from our experiences are also informing global dialogue on EbA, influencing how EbA is implemented worldwide.
Materials
Peer-reviewed publications
Limited use of transformative adaptation in response to social-ecological shifts driven by climate change
The use of Ecosystem-based Adaptation practices by smallholder farmers in Central America
Ecosystem-based adaptation for smallholder farmers: Definitions, opportunities and constraints
Transformative adaptation to climate change for sustainable social-ecological systems
Vulnerability of smallholder farmers to climate change in Central America and Mexico: current knowledge and research gaps
A Socio-Ecological Approach for Identifying and Contextualising Spatial Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Priorities at the Sub-National Level
Species Distribution Models (SDM) in Biodiversity Conservation Strategies and Climate Change Ecosystem Based Adaptation
Indicators to measure the climate change adaptation outcomes of ecosystem-based adaptation
Policy and technical briefs
Pandemics Prevention and Recovery Through Ecosystem-based Adaptation
Nature-Based Solutions for Adaptation
Ecosystem-based Adaptation is essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals
Indicators to measure the adaptation outcomes of Ecosystem-based adaptation
Nature-based transformative adaptation
Smallholder Farmers and Ecosystem-based Adaptation
Lessons learned: Ecosystem based adaptation in marine, terrestrial and coastal regions
Training modules and guidelines
Directrices Para el Diseño, la Implementación y el Monitoreo de Soluciones Basadas en la Naturaleza Para la Adaptación
Guide to Including Nature in Nationally Determined Contributions
Guidelines for Designing, Implementing and Monitoring Nature-Based Solutions for Adaptation
Nature-based transformative adaptation — a practical handbook
Constructing theories of change for ecosystem-based adaptation projects
Climate change, vulnerability and actions to combat climate change: basic concepts (El clima, el cambio climático, la vulnerabilidad y acciones contra el cambio climático: Conceptos básicos)
Impacts of climate change on agriculture in Central America: adaptation and mitigation strategies (Impactos del cambio climático en la agricultura de Centroamérica, estrategias de mitigación y adaptación)
The importance of ecosystem services for agriculture (La importancia de los servicios ecosistémicos para la agricultura)
How to address climate change in agricultural systems: Ecosystem-based Adaptation Practices (Cómo enfrentar el cambio climático desde la agricultura: Prácticas de Adaptación basadas en Ecosistemas)
Tool for integrating ecosystems into climate change adaptation planning
Adapting to a changing climate — a community manual
Adapting to a changing climate — Training Design/Facilitation
Adapting to a changing climate — training guide
Monitoring and evaluation of EbA
Vulnerability assessments
Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment of the Discovery Coast and Abrolhos Shelf, Brazil
Climate change vulnerability assessment of the Verde Island Passage, Philippines
A Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment for the Namakwa District, South Africa - The 2015 Revision
Related conservation news from our blog
Contact
Camila Donatti, PhD.
Director, Climate Change Adaptation
cdonatti@conservation.org
Giacomo Fedele, PhD.
Manager, Climate Change Adaptation
gfedele@conservation.org