Legal Aspects of Nature-Based Solutions Cluster

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) have become an essential strategy supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation, while simultaneously protecting biodiversity. Legal and institutional frameworks at a global and national level play a key role for the effective implementation of NbS, in order to ensure coordination among decision makers, overcome systemic barriers, promote equity, fairness and social justice, and ensure monitoring and upscaling. The “Legal Aspects of Nature-Based Solutions” cluster focuses on advancing the legal, financial, and institutional frameworks essential for scaling Nature-Based Solutions (NbS). Our work will explore innovative investment structures, risk mitigation strategies, and due diligence models to attract scalable financing, emphasizing community and biodiversity co-benefits. By aligning NbS with sustainable finance standards, and creating standardisation in securitisation structures, we will aim to build pathways towards scaling investments into NbS.

Cluster Leads: 

Fabiano de Andrade Correa, Senior International lawyer, World Bank and Co-Chair of the IUCN WCEL Climate Change Law Specialist Group

Varnika Chawla, Legal Manager, Climate Asset Management  

Webinars

Legal Architecture for Scaling Investments in Nature-based Solutions
(April 23rd, 2026)

DESCRIPTION: 
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are increasingly seen as a key driver in tackling climate change. Indeed, COP 30 culminated in a new Global Multirão, which recognised, amongst others, the importance of conserving, protecting and restoring nature and ecosystems towards achieving the Paris Agreement temperature goal and the vital importance of protecting, conserving, restoring and sustainably using and managing nature and terrestrial, marine and mountainous ecosystems for effective and sustainable climate action. Further, important strides were made in the promotion of nature-based solutions, including the launch of UNECE’s practical guide to NbS in order to protect, restore and manage ecosystems, addressing societal challenges while delivering benefits for people and biodiversity.

This webinar explores the significance of a structured legal due diligence framework within the spirit of key climate change and biodiversity treaties and frameworks, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The webinar explores comparative examples from various jurisdictions and how NbS fits into Article 6 activities. In doing so, the speakers identify the core le gal risk domains that must be systematically assessed prior to investments into NbS. These include land tenure and carbon rights, safeguards such as Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for vulnerable communities, benefit-sharing, disclosure regimes, permanence and best practices, all of which enable meaningful and impactful capital deployment into NbS.