Nature-based solutions for drought: Experts convene at UNCCD COP16 to examine how ecosystem restoration can benefit people and nature

The IUCN-organized side event, titled “Nature-based Solutions for Drought: Advancing Ecosystem Restoration to Reduce Drought Risk,” invited COP16 attendees to rethink current approaches to drought management, with speakers advocating for proactive strategies that embrace nature-based solutions to address the root causes of drought while building community resilience and combating climate change, biodiversity loss, desertification, and land degradation.

Expert speakers included: Stewart Maginnis, IUCN Deputy Director General; Georg Locher, Head of Unit for Environment and Sustainability at Austria’s Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs; Ermias Betemariam, GEF STAP Land Degradation Advisor and CIFOR-ICRAF Land Health Research Scientist; Mark Schauer, Senior Advisor at the Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) Initiative; Belén Citoler, Director of the World Rural Forum (WRF); and Liubov Timofeeva, IUCN Nature-based Solutions Project Officer for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Moderation was provided by Luther Bois Anukur, IUCN Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa.

Growing Threats and Growing Opportunities

According to the UNCCD, drought directly affects over 1.8 billion people and costs countries over US $307 billion per year, numbers which are only predicted to increase in the face of worsening climate change and land degradation. If current trends persist, 3 in 4 people will be affected by drought by 2050, making the need for action clear. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that landscape degradation not only contributes to drought but hinders the ability of communities and landscapes to effectively respond to and rebound from drought. Land degradation, desertification, and drought are thus not separate problems, but closely intertwined phenomena which contribute to and exacerbate one another.

There is an urgent need for solutions that address these linked challenges, which is where nature-based solutions come in: by leveraging nature-based solutions to restore ecosystems and strengthen their resilience to drought, landscapes can provide stronger ecosystem services, support greater biodiversity, and allow for more productivity to sustain peoples’ livelihoods, all while enabling climate change mitigation and adaptation.

“To tackle the land degradation, climate change, and biodiversity loss crises and the compounding effects of drought, we need integrated approaches that optimize natural resource use and shape decision-making related to their management," emphasized Mr. Maginnis. He highlighted the importance of recognizing these interlinkages, fostering partnerships, providing local communities and smallholder farmers direct access to financing, advancing scientific research and knowledge production, and crafting coherent policies that promote proactive over reactive drought management strategies. “We need to have much more urgency of action, and we need to raise the profile of this issue.”

The urgency of this issue was reinforced by Mr. Locher, who pointed to the human suffering caused by drought: “Drought hits, in particular, women, children, and the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. Land plagued by drought loses its capacity to sustain life, which leads to a range of consequences, from crop failure to forced migration and conflict, to putting freshwater ecosystems at risk. Nature plays a critical role in building resilience to drought. Nature-based solutions therefore are key to our ability to adapt to a changing climate.”

To demonstrate the proof of concept for employing nature-based solutions to combat drought, the report “Restoring ecosystems to reduce drought risk: Nature-based Solutions for drought” was launched at this event. Led by IUCN and made possible by funding from the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), this report presented case studies from Burkina Faso, Georgia, and Kenya to illustrate how nature-based solutions can be utilized to restore ecosystems, increase community resilience to drought, and support sustainable livelihoods for men, women, and youth. The report is a result of a five-year collaboration between IUCN and ADA to enhance the resilience of vulnerable communities and work closely with stakeholders to create effective drought management strategies.

Engaging Communities and Creating Enabling Conditions

During the session, a panel of experts underscored the need to engage communities, transform policies, and promote access to finance if nature-based solutions are to be successfully integrated into drought management and response. Nature-based solutions have been demonstrated in a variety of contexts to work, but they must be designed and implemented in close consultation and collaboration with stakeholders and community members.

“The ‘how’ question is really difficult. Technically, to make it feasible, you take it to the real actors at the sub-national, watershed, landscape, farmers’ and pastoralists’ levels, because these are the people who on a daily basis interact with their land and their landscapes,” emphasized Dr. Betemariam, pointing to the importance of closely engaging communities to promote uptake of nature-based solutions and make them effective in the long term. “How do you take it to the farmers? How do you take it to the communities? How do they really empower the whole thing?”

The benefits of nature-based solutions are not only environmental. Research has shown that there can be significant economic return on investment—up to US $27 in return for every dollar invested—meaning nature-based solutions also present an opportunity for countries and communities to advance economic security and livelihoods without compromising ecological integrity.

“An overall nature-positive economy can generate up to US $10 trillion annually in business value. If we triple the investment in nature-based solutions up through 2030, we could get an additional 20 million jobs out of this,” said Mr. Schauer, referencing a newly launched UNCCD report on the economics of drought, as well as the successes of the AREECA initiative, which brought IUCN and a diverse consortium of partners together to accelerate landscape restoration and sustainable livelihood development in Africa. “Investment in nature-based solutions pays off economically. It creates jobs, especially jobs down on the ground for stakeholders.”

In advocating for participatory approaches, however, it is critical to recognize the differentiated impacts of drought. Citing tenuous access to finance and land tenure, Ms. Citoler reinforced this point: “Family farmers are among the most vulnerable groups to drought since their livelihoods depend on their farms. This is even greater, unfortunately, for women, because they have less access to resources and more constraints.”

To ensure effective adoption and, subsequently, scaling up of nature-based solutions, local communities and farmers must be recognized as strategic partners, not simply beneficiaries. Moreover, enabling policy and finance conditions must be created to allow for a drought response model which is forward-thinking, integrated, equitable, and sustainable in the long term.

Scaling Up Nature-Based Solutions for Effective Action

Now, the challenge for stakeholders and decision-makers is to scale up adoption of nature-based solutions. The scientific evidence is clear: nature-based solutions, including ecosystem restoration, can contribute to reversing desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) and achieving land degradation neutrality (LDN), as well as reaching climate, biodiversity, and socioeconomic goals. However, more work needs to be done to change policies, streamline finance access, and promote holistic and integrated drought strategies.

“Nature-based solutions must take effect at a faster rate than the rate at which drought and the impacts of climate change are happening. Otherwise, we will not realize the solution,” said Mr. Anukur, driving home the message that governments, NGOs, IGOs, and CSOs alike must come together to advance solutions that are integrative, innovative, and nature-positive. Scaling up adoption of nature-based solutions will not only assist local communities but will support the international community in achieving the targets of the UNCCD, the Paris Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the Global Biodiversity Framework.

“Drought is a phenomenon that does not have a boundary,” Ms. Timofeeva emphasized while sharing IUCN’s experiences working with partners and stakeholders to combat drought in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. “The challenges are huge, but we also see a positive side: we truly believe that by joining forces, by investing in and promoting nature-based solutions, we can solve the problem of drought and allow local communities to thrive.”

With drought at top of mind for attendees at UNCCD COP16, this side event presented a meaningful opportunity for stakeholders and decision-makers to explore how nature-based solutions can be leveraged to address this growing threat—ultimately reinforcing that the wellbeing of our land is critical not only to counteracting drought, but to securing our collective future.

The event recording can be viewed in full here. To learn more about IUCN’s work on drylands, land degradation, and drought, visit our website here.

For more information, contact Katherine Poe at [email protected].