Putbus/Insel Vilm, 24. February 2021: Nature-based solutions (NbS) have received more attention in recent years – also in the context of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and the UN Convention on Climate Change. They also feature highly in the recent EU Green Deal. From 10 to 24 February 2021 the GIZ Sector Programme “Conservation of Biodversity on Land”, the GIZ Sector Network Rural Development Asia and Pacific (SNRD) and the International Academy for Nature Conservation Isle of Vilm (INA) of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), organized with the support of adelphi, four half-day online training sessions to facilitate networking among GIZ staff and partners in the region Asia-Pacific on concepts of NbS.

The region of Asia and Pacific is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and related disasters. At the same time the demands of a growing population and emerging economies put additional stress on the natural resources of the region. Coastal ecosystems and particularly mangroves play a dominant role in the region. They offer wider societal benefits, but are under stress themselves. Nature-based solutions seem to be therefore of great relevance to this region. Nature-based Solutions – actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore ecosystems to address societal challenges, as defined by IUCN – can assist with efforts protecting natural resources and biodiversity and have positive impacts related to climate change.

The GIZ programmes based in the region would like to expand their respective activities as well as exchange experiences made so far and invited to this training. The current training is based on a prototype that was developed jointly by GIZ and BfN and held at the INA in 2019. In the online training “Nature-based solutions for global challenges” around 30 participants from the Asia-Pacific region received an overview of the NbS concept, its role at the international level and key aspects linked to its successful implementation. Participants had the opportunity to bring in good practice cases on how NbS have been applied in the Asia-Pacific region. The good practice examples have been used to identify common challenges and opportunities and to develop entry points for further scaling up NbS implementation in the region. A further objective of the training is to develop regular exchange platforms and a community of practice and to offer further support and learning opportunities.

BfN and its international Academy contributed to this course with a keynote presentation on the role of NbS for global crises and green-blue recovery as well by presenting learning opportunities offered by the INA, such as another in depth online training on NbS in June 2021.