An incredible outcome for ICEM, World Agroforesty (ICRAF) and FAO Asia with the publishing of an original framework for Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) in agricultural landscapes in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science. Access it here.

This article builds on research conducted as part of the project Identifying Green Infrastructure and Nature-Based Solutions for More Resilient Rural Communities which concluded in 2020.

Although Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) are widely applied in urban sustainability and conservation discourses, they are less common in agricultural landscapes, which represent one of the most heavily human-altered systems. Responding to this gap, a review of 188 peer-reviewed articles on NbS and Green Infrastructure was undertaken, which permitted a systematic grouping of practices into four essential functions for NBS in agriculture: 1) Sustainable practices — with a focus on production; 2) Green Infrastructure — mainly for engineering purposes such as water and soil, and slope stabilization; 3) Amelioration — for restoration of conditions for plants, water, soil or air and climate change mitigation; and 4) Conservation — focusing on biodiversity and ecosystem connectivity.

The framework was then tested and refined as part of three international expert consultations organized in 2019–2020.

The Nature-Based Solutions in Agriculture Framework

Regional regional 2-day consultation in Hanoi in July 2019

ICEM and FAO have since applied the framework to selected NbS locations in India, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam as part of the recently concluded project Deploying nature-based solutions (NBS) as specific measures to address agroecosystem degradation and associated drivers and generate environmental benefits at multiple scales, where it was used to develop context-specific solutions for agricultural challenges from the field to landscape level.

But do we really need another framework?

Lead author and senior cliamte scientist […]