IISD: New Initiative to Boost Capacity for Nature-Based Climate Solutions

Press Release

JUNE 7, WINNIPEG—The converging crises of biodiversity loss and climate change are rapidly intensifying the vulnerabilities of communities and ecosystems around the world. Launching today, the Nature for Climate Adaptation Initiative (NCAI) has one crucial goal: to help enable nature-based climate action that protects both livelihoods and biodiversity in the most vulnerable parts of the world.

Offering a wide range of resources, expert guidance, and accessible learning opportunities, this new project by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), with support from Global Affairs Canada, provides civil society organizations with the tools they need to enhance the implementation of nature-based climate solutions (NBCS) for adaptation that protect people of all genders and social groups. The NCAI will also feature an e-learning course on Ecosystem-based Adaptation—developed in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)—which will be launching in the coming months.

“With careful implementation tailored to local contexts, nature-based climate solutions are highly effective and contribute to addressing societal challenges while enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem resilience,” says Veronica Lo, Senior Policy Advisor with IISD’s Resilience Program and lead for the NCAI. “Strengthening the knowledge and capacity of civil society is not only critical for scaling up the implementation of NBCS, it also helps mainstream Ecosystem-based Adaptation across different disciplines and sectors.”

The NCAI uses three pillars to ground its work. It is:

• Socially inclusive: Integrating principles of good governance and equity as well as considerations of Indigenous and local or Traditional Knowledge in NBCS implementation.
• Biodiversity positive: Scaling up the implementation of NBCS to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem resilience.
• Gender responsive: Ensuring that NBCS actively promote and enable gender equality.

“Women and girls in many parts of the world depend extensively on natural resources for their livelihoods and well-being. Nature-based climate solutions reflect this relationship, providing better protection and increased resilience in the face of climate change while also leveraging their unique insights and leadership in planning for and using these solutions,” says Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of International Development and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada.

“Canada’s support for the Nature for Climate Adaptation Initiative is one more way that we are helping to promote social inclusion and gender equality in climate action.”

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Media contact:

Alanna Evans, Communications Officer, IISD

aevans@iisd.ca

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