Policy needs for mainstreaming nature-based solutions

New paper just published in Land Use Policy journal examining the policy needs for implementing nature-based solutions in cities

The SRI conducts transdisciplinary research on nature-based solutions and is currently involved in the EU-funded Horizon 2020 Connecting Nature project. Connecting Nature aims to support cities to scale up the implementation of nature-based solutions in cities globally. The value of scaling nature-based solutions has never been more evident, given the current global pandemic (COVID-19) which has highlighted how essential access to nature is for our mental and physical wellbeing. In this timely article just published in Land Use Policy, SRI researchers and our Connecting Nature partners examine policy needs and actions for how we can achieve scaled-up nature-based solutions in cities. Below is a summary of the findings and recommendations from this study.

Over the past three years, we have been collaborating with our Connecting Nature project partners in Europe and beyond to understand more clearly the policy needs required by cities to embed nature-based solutions at scale. Our close work with the project’s three Front Runner Cities – Genk (Belgium), Glasgow (UK) and Poznań (Poland) – has helped us develop some clear recommendations, in particular on the practices required to achieve the multiple benefits that a nature-based approach can unlock. This work has just been published in the journal Land Use Policy. You can read the article here or contact us for a copy.

In summary, our paper identifies nature-based solutions as systemic solutions, providing multiple benefits including ecological, economic, social, and health and wellbeing.  As such, we argue that they are the pre-eminent next-generation solutions for cities to deal with multiple challenges in a life-enhancing way. We know however that, in practice, nature-based solutions represent a complex problem, with many challenges to their roll-out at scale. Because of this complexity, we identify how knowledge and expertise from many different disciplines and involving many different institutions and communities need to be mobilised, from the diagnostics at outset, through planning, design, implementation and ongoing stewardship.

A nature-based solution in Malaga, Spain? Working with cities to support them in understanding the biodiversity value of spaces, how to enhance this, and how to increase the environmental , social, and economic value through nature-based solution delivery.

From our cross-case, transdisciplinary research, we highlight the following needs for implementing NBS at scale in cities:

Knowledge needs

– Systems thinking

– Solutions-focused thinking

Skills required

– To perform comprehensive diagnostics on the location and form of the nature-based solution

– To communicate effectively the benefits of nature-based solutions to a diverse audience

– To develop the skills required to win the ‘hearts and minds’ and collaborative working with colleagues in different city departments or organisations so that effective scales and multiple benefits can be leveraged

Effective partnerships working

– Identifying the opportunities to collaborate with a wide spectrum of urban actors

– Forging partnerships across communities of interest, such as with civil society, local businesses and knowledge actors (e.g. local universities and colleges)

– Agreeing the right type of partnership – for example, partnerships that are co-opted, often temporary and location-specific have been found to be vital for progressing the practice of nature-based solutions at scale

Bridging processes required to mediate across knowledge, skills and partnerships

– Investing in targeted and tailored capacity building programmes

– Creating institutional spaces that enable collaborative learning through and for partnerships

– Accelerating institutional and governance innovations that link evidence-based policy and planning, knowledge of NBS and political commitment and decision-making

The next steps for Connecting Nature are to develop resources and tools to facilitate these bridging processes in our partner cities and to transfer the city learning globally to city peers.

Connecting Nature Front Runner Cities are trialling different ways of working to embed NBS across the city, from strategic policies to implementation on the ground with communities.

Glasgow: are using their Open Space Strategy to create dialogues and nature-based opportunities around different needs and future uses identified through a collaborative process with diverse urban stakeholders:

Copyright: Glasgow City Council

Genk: the Connecting Nature team have worked with a diverse range of public and private partners to develop a comprehensive diagnostic strategy that has uncovered unexpected opportunities for their nature-based solution exemplar connecting different nodes across the city.

Copyright: Paula Vandergert

Poznań: have been pioneering the concept of open gardens and eco-demonstrators to bring accessible nature-based solutions into the heart of the dense urban core by partnering with the city kindergartens.

Copyright: City of Poznań

By Paula Vandergert