Research priorities for marine and coastal Nature-based Solutions (NBS)

Reproduced from O’Leary et al 2023.

Research priorities for marine and coastal Nature-based Solutions (NBS)

A core goal of the project MaCoBioS is to develop innovative research pathways and provide evidence-based guidance for marine policy formulation on Nature-Based Solutions (NBS).

In delivering this goal, we recently brought together twenty-one researchers from a breadth of scientific disciplines to identify research priorities for advancing understanding and informing implementation of marine and coastal NBS. Led by MaCoBioS researchers Dr Bethan O’Leary at the University of Exeter and Dr Catarina Fonseca at the University of the Azores, this collaborative work was supported by other members of the MaCoBioS team together with researchers from two other EU Horizon 2020 projects ‘Climate Change and Future Marine Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity’ (FutureMARES) and ‘Large scale RESToration of COASTal ecosystems through rivers to sea connectivity’ (REST-COAST).

Our three research priorities

To date, NBS have been largely studied for terrestrial – particularly urban – systems, with limited uptake thus far in marine and coastal areas. Yet, marine and coastal systems are of immense value to people and nature, face unprecedented risks from climate change and human impacts, and NBS offer a powerful strategy to reduce direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. We have therefore proposed three key interrelated research priorities for advancing NBS understanding and informing implementation in marine and coastal areas:

Biodiversity and ecosystem science: improve understanding of marine and coastal biodiversity-ecosystem services relationship. Our world is rapidly changing, and we need to understand risks to biodiversity and new opportunities for better management. Advancing knowledge on links between marine and coastal biodiversity, ecosystem health, vulnerability, functions, and services will help us do this and make us better placed to maximise the effectiveness of NBS as they are deployed.

Implementation guidance: provide scientific guidance on how and where to implement marine and coastal NBS and better coordinate across NBS strategies and projects. By improving our understanding of which marine and coastal NBS offer the greatest value, and how and where to implement and coordinate strategies for them, we can better implement management and help overcome barriers to NBS implementation.

People-centric research and action: develop ways to enhance marine and coastal NBS communication, collaboration, ocean literacy and stewardship. People are a critical part of the natural world and we need to better integrate and engage with local communities and other stakeholders in research and management to raise awareness, boost buy-in and increase societal benefits of NBS.

Embracing NBS in marine and coastal areas for transformative change

These are a broad set of priorities intrinsically linked to each other that go far beyond what one project can deliver. Collaboration between researchers and practitioners will be key and we need to concentrate investment and research efforts to move forwards with marine and coastal NBS design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Moving forward, MaCoBioS hopes that these research priorities can help inspire new research that operates with the same holistic approach as NBS – creating actionable science that embeds people and nature and helps us embrace NBS in the science, policy and practice of managing marine and coastal ecosystems for tangible benefits to people and marine life.

The full citation of the paper is: O’Leary BC, Fonseca C, Cornet CC, de Vries MB, Degia AK, Failler P, Furlan E, Garrabou J, Gil A, Hawkins JP, Krause-Jensen D, Le Roux X, Peck MA, Pérez G, Queirós AM, Różyński G, Sanchez-Arcilla A, Simide R, Sousa Pinto I, Trégarot E, Roberts CM. (2023) Embracing Nature-based Solutions to promote resilient marine and coastal ecosystems. Nature-Based Solutions 3:100044.

The full paper can be found here.

Text by Bethan O’Leary and Catarina Fonseca

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WORKING TOGETHER TO MOVE FORWARDS WITH NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS

WORKING TOGETHER TO MOVE FORWARDS WITH NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS

MaCoBioS and CMCC were excited to welcome participants from across the Mediterranean to Lecce, Italy on the 29thand 30th September 2022 to discuss how we can identify spatial opportunities for marine and coastal Nature-based Solutions.

Our goal was to bring together policy-makers and practitioners who are working to improve management of marine and coastal ecosystems through nature-based approaches and provide a forum to foster learning, explore current and future challenges faced by management, and consider solutions. Here is the host and coordinator, Elisa Furlan, giving a short overview of the workshop.

The agenda was packed. Thought-provoking presentations, in-depth discussions, a trip to the Torre Guaceto Marine Protected Area, tasty food, and lots of sharing of ideas. Our conversations were focused around how we can better manage cumulative risks from human activities and climate change in marine and coastal spaces and inform decisions about where NBS could be targeted. A common theme that ran through all our discussions was the urgent need to reduce direct human pressures on marine and coastal ecosystems where they occur prior to other actions. Without doing so, the effectiveness of any other form of management, such as restoration actions, would be limited. There were lots of interesting discussions about balancing pragmatism and opportunity with application of predictive models that can offer more strategic direction. We also discussed what such models should contain and how they should be communicated. Displayed below is a brief synopsis of the workshop.In the end, we were happy with the positive feedback received from participants, who found the workshop interesting and highlighted the importance of these events.

We’d like to thank all of the people who made our workshop a success by giving their time and valuable insights which helped shape this important dialogue and tool development.

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Text by Elisa Furlan, Bethan O’Leary and Catarina Fonseca

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Exploring Loss and Damage to People and Society from Climate Change impacts on Coastal and Marine Ecosystem Services

Exploring Loss and Damage to People and Society from Climate Change impacts on Coastal and Marine Ecosystem Services

Over the past decades, climate-related hazards, for instance rapid onset events such as floods and droughts, have increased in their occurrence and severity. Simultaneously, slow-onset processes such as sea-level rise and salinization continue unabated, leading to cascading impacts for ecosystems and people. Moreover, the severity of climate change will affect people’s livelihoods, particularly in low-lying areas and Small Island States (SIDS). Given these continuous pressures and disruptions on livelihoods, various people and institutions are discussing and implementing different adaptation strategies. However, adaptation strategies can be sometimes misguided and add negative consequences on current human and natural systems vulnerabilities. Sometimes adaptation to climate change impacts is no longer possible, leading to loss and damage to people and society.

The concept of loss and damage was first mentioned in 2013 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage (WIM). ‘Loss and damage’ does not have a consistent definition, but frequently refers to the unavoidable impacts of climate change due, for instance, to biophysical, social, financial, and technical constraints and the lack of consideration of context-specificities. Loss and damage are characterized as either economic (tradable in the market), such as physical assets, or non-economic (not tradable in the market), such as cultural heritage or ecosystem health and services. For instance, climate induced losses of ecosystem services that coastal communities rely on for their livelihoods and food security, may lead to the displacement of people, resulting in the loss of their identity, heritage, and local knowledge.

There is a need to better understand climate change impacts on ecosystems and their services in order to address loss and damage to people and society.  Within the MACOBIOS project, the focus is on understanding and increasing knowledge about the relationship between climate change, biodiversity, and marine and coastal ecosystem services to support better informed and inclusive decisions, despite the uncertainty posed by climate change impacts.

Through a gender and intersectional lens, I investigate the climate change impact on marine and coastal livelihoods and the limits of adaptation in Martinique. My research pays particular attention to people’s relationship with the ocean and marine and coastal ecosystem services (past, present, and future aspirations) as I seek to understand people’s values and use of these services for their livelihoods and well-being. Furthermore, I explore how people perceive the risks posed by climate change, how they are affected by climate change and why do they act in a specific way to climate change impacts and the resulting loss and damages. This also means considering social group specificities and institutions influencing people’s adaptative capacity.

Consideration of coastal communities’ heterogeneities, dependencies, needs, and priorities is crucial to ensure that science and adaptation policies and projects contribute to minimize and avoid loss and damage. My research will provide a better understanding of adaptation limits and how to address loss and damage induced by climate change on people and societies.  To achieve “The Science We Need For The Ocean We Want” as part of the UN Ocean Decade we must ensure that communities relying on coastal and marine ecosystem services are fully considered in our projects to ensure a more sustainable future.

Description: Itsamia, Moheli, Comoros. Photo credit: Alicia N’guetta

EndNotes

My research also takes place in the context of a Lund University project called Recasting the Disproportionate Impacts of Climate Change Extremes (DICE) that focus on advancing the conceptualisation, measurement, and governance of loss and damage. To learn more please click here.
To learn more please read the article “Climate Change and Ecosystem Services – Implications for Present and Future Loss and Damage to People and  Society” in EcoMagazine-Rising Seas Edition 2021 here.

Text by Alicia N’Guetta

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Understanding power and different worldviews for achieving more just and sustainable coastal adaptation outcomes

Understanding power and different worldviews for achieving more just and sustainable coastal adaptation outcomes

Adaptation has become the centre of Small Island States’ (SIS) political response to cope with the impacts of climate change. Efforts to mainstream coastal adaptation policy among different sectors and improved access to international funds to meet adaptation costs have led to an increase in the number of adaptation projects. For SIS that depend on marine and coastal ecosystems, some interventions such as the construction of coastal protective structures and mangrove and coral restoration are increasingly being promoted as adaptation strategies. However, whilst this should be a cause for celebration, there is growing evidence that current interventions are failing to reduce the vulnerability of those people who are supposed to be supported by these very adaptation actions. But why are current efforts not necessarily reducing vulnerability? And what can we do to overcome these challenges so as to produce outcomes that are just and sustainable?
Fishers in Saint Lucia Photo
credit: Fabiola Espinoza

In this special issue of Eco Magazine -Rising Seas 2021, I unravel these questions by highlighting the role of power dynamics and worldviews in the governance of climate change adaptation. It is common that adaptation goals and priorities are set up and decided upon by people in positions of power, either intentionally, due to political decisions, or inadvertently, due to poorly designed and executed interventions. In doing so, the intended beneficiaries are often left out. For example, the construction of infrastructure as a flood protection strategy has proven to be effective in reducing the vulnerability of SIS to sea level rise, but is frequently implemented by those who have the power to do so, with a particular vision and interest in mind. This affects access to key resources and livelihoods, typically impacting groups who already tend to be marginalized. In this sense, if scientists and policy-makers truly want to reframe adaptation interventions, we must understand how these interventions are interconnected with the wider processes of political and social dynamics. Not only must we must understand ‘who decides what’, but also how values, interests and desired goals are weighted in decision making, and how this can affect the success of adaptation interventions. As the latest IPPC report highlights, with ocean warming, sea level rise and other changes to marine and coastal ecosystems expected to continue in the coming years, coastal adaptation as a policy response to climate change must be prioritized, now more than ever. While this is an indisputable challenge for policy makers and coastal communities, by considering how power and different values, beliefs and worldviews influence the design and institutional interventions of adaptation, we can use this opportunity to rethink current approaches and push for fairer and more equitable pathways.

To read the full article “More than Fixed Solutions: Power and Different Worldviews in Framing Coastal Adaptation Actions” in EcoMagazine-Rising Seas 2021 click here.

Text by Fabiola Espinoza

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Climate Change and Ecosystem Services – Implications for Present and Future Loss and Damage to People and Society

Climate Change and Ecosystem Services – Implications for Present and Future Loss and Damage to People and Society

To read the article

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