This programme, led by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), supports research into how nature-based solutions can be adapted and scaled across Sub-Saharan Africa. It explores their potential to support climate resilience, biodiversity and sustainable development in different environmental, social and economic contexts.
This programme will improve understanding of how effective nature-based solutions are in different contexts through comparative analysis. This includes consideration of how:
- current localised interventions can be scaled up
- the benefits they bring change across scales and interact
- knowledge that has been developed in other settings needs to be adapted for the African context
The programme will:
- address a lack of knowledge about the suitability and feasibility of nature-based solutions in different Sub-Saharan African contexts and their potential impacts on local ecosystems and communities
- explore opportunities for nature-based solutions to be adapted and scaled more widely in Sub-Saharan Africa through qualitative and quantitative assessment of the environmental, agrarian, economic and social impacts of nature-based solutions
- better understand how nature-based solutions can increase the resilience of ecosystems and people to climate-associated risks and be incorporated into policy at the local and national scale alongside long-term investment from the public and private sector
- address equity and sustainability of nature-based solutions for environments and people, through considering gender equity and social inclusion, knowledge mobilisation and the integration of indigenous peoples and local communities in design, implementation and maintenance of nature-based solutions