NATURESCAPES

NATURESCAPES addresses the pressing challenge of realising the transformative potential of nature-based solutions (NBS) for climate change, biodiversity loss and social justice. Despite progress in the field, our knowledge of the synergies and trade-offs from implementing NBS at scale across diverse and interconnected landscapes is limited. At the same time, there remain challenges in designing the governance arrangements, finance and forms of citizen engagement are needed while the value NBS for diverse social actors is increasingly contested – especially where they seem to bring benefits to some and new forms of inequity and exclusion to others. Advancing the transformative potential of NBS requires that we address these underlying challenges together – ensuring they are both effective and just. NATURESCAPES will advance our understanding of how NBS across interconnected urban, rural and coastal landscapes generate benefits for diverse communities, particularly in areas of socio-economic disadvantage, inequity and risk. We will analyse the synergies/trade-offs emerging for climate, biodiversity and communities in 30 ‘naturescapes’ across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and the USA, including 12 in-depth case-studies focusing on the dynamics of implementation, creating new insights and tools. In 7 of these cases we will co-design interventions with local collaborators that test transformative theories and practices of change and identify how these can be replicated. Led by Utrecht University, the NATURESCAPES consortium brings together expertise across the sciences, social sciences and humanities from five European Universities, The Nature Conservancy, WWF and Grupo Laera (a leading consultancy in NBS and ecosystem services in LAC), and an international collaboratory of stakeholders. Together, we will adopt a transdisciplinary approach to take forward the realisation of NBS that are transformative for climate change, biodiversity and communities.