Nature-based solutions are increasingly being adopted by environmental managers and policy makers seeking to address the growing ecological and climate emergencies, both in Europe and globally. Nature-based solutions – such as peatland and river restoration – aim to use natural processes to help tackle socio-environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and flooding.
One key element of nature-based solutions is that they are designed to offer clear economic and social rationales for the value of protecting and restoring natural environments. Advocates of nature-based solutions suggest that this helps strengthen arguments over the value of mainstreaming environmental restoration to benefit all our lives.
In this context, a newly-published open-access paper explores whether nature-based solutions can make meaningful contributions to tackling the freshwater biodiversity crisis. Writing in PLOS Water, Dr. Charles van Rees and colleagues highlight how nature-based solutions can offer ‘win-wins’ for nature and society, but emphasise that clear links must be made between their use and priorities for freshwater conservation.
We spoke to Dr. van Rees to find out more about the research.
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Tell us about your paper: what are the key take-away points, and why do they matter?
I would highlight several take-home points from the paper. First, the notion which inspired the paper itself: everyone – from governments to NGO’s to private consultants – is getting really excited about nature-based solutions (or NBS). And that’s not a bad thing. But as we approach implementation of NBS on a massive scale, we have to make sure we’re doing these projects the right way. Part of the appeal of these projects is ostensibly their potential to benefit biodiversity. However, at the moment, this seems mostly unsubstantiated; people are happy to pay lip-service to what NBS could be doing for biodiversity but in our enthusiasm we have failed to take a critical stance toward these claims. The paper set out to test those claims for freshwater biodiversity, the most imperilled realm of biodiversity, since a great number of NBS address freshwater management issues.
The second take home point is regarding what we found when we started digging into the literature: very little! Although there is an increasing amount written on NBS, there has been very little biodiversity monitoring of NBS projects. Thus, most evidence is indirect, and we had to conduct our analyses largely in a qualitative manner. The major message here is that we need to start rounding up the available evidence on the biodiversity impacts of common NBS, and collecting new evidence as these projects become increasingly mainstream.
The last major take-home comes from our qualitative findings. Namely, that NBS can make big contributions to some, but not all, of the major priority actions for freshwater biodiversity conservation. In other words, they do show great promise, but will not be a panacea. For things like facilitating environmental flows, creating and restoring habitat, and improving water quality and ecological and hydrological connectivity, NBS seem like they could make a major impact, especially if implemented at scale. For other issues, the potential is more indirect and would be appropriate for a supporting role, but we would still need to find ways to specifically and directly address those conservation issues in other ways.
Why is it so important to critically examine the role of NBS in freshwater conservation and restoration right now?
In the US and elsewhere, interest, momentum, and funding for NBS projects are building rapidly. They are an urgently needed solution to many major problems of the anthropocene, particularly dealing with global climate change and water-related existential risks like drought and flooding. At the same time, freshwater biodiversity is in crisis. That makes coming decades, where huge amounts of money are invested into water-management infrastructure, a critical time for freshwater biodiversity. If NBS can be deployed at scale and in ways that support biodiversity conservation goals like those put forth by David Tickner and colleagues, then the benefits could be massive.
Based on your research, do you think NBS deliver on their potential for freshwater biodiversity conservation, whilst also benefiting society?
I think NBS can absolutely deliver on both of the major ‘promises’ that people are excitedly making right now. However, it will require interdisciplinary knowledge integrated across sectors and levels of management – for example, from scientific expertise to local, indigenous, and other traditional expertise – and rigorous monitoring to ensure that this is the case. We see great potential for NBS to contribute to freshwater conservation goals like increasing connectivity, improving water quality, and generating habitat, for example. Other major goals like reducing the impacts of invasive species may be less directly related to freshwater NBS.
In your paper, you link freshwater NBS with six priority actions for freshwater biodiversity conservation. Why was this important to do, and what potential does it offer environmental managers and policy makers?
David Ticker and colleagues’ priority actions, and the complementary, cross-cutting Special Recommendations by myself and colleagues both outline strategic priorities that need to be addressed to ‘bend the curve’ for freshwater biodiversity, that is, slow and perhaps even reverse ongoing declines. In critically examining the promise of NBS for freshwater biodiversity, we wanted to ground their potential contributions to biodiversity conservation issues in a-priori categories of conservation action.
We hope that linking to these important 21st-century freshwater conservation papers and their highlighted priorities will help guide biodiversity research on NBS to focus on topic areas with maximal potential positive impact. I think the major potential for environmental managers and policy makers is in making them aware of what specific contributions they can expect to be making toward conservation goals. In planning and negotiations for projects, it’s important that they know what NBS can and can’t do, and what types of benefits are within the realm of possibility.
Finally, what knowledge gaps and other challenges need to be addressed to better apply freshwater NBS in the future?
The knowledge gaps around NBS and biodiversity are frankly huge. This means that funding must be made available for rigorous scientific monitoring of biodiversity in restored, artificial, and protected ecosystems functioning as NBS. This has a lot in common with ongoing work on novel ecosystems, and papers like our recent framework for monitoring natural infrastructure will be necessary to ensure that we learn as we go, and don’t proceed blindly with burgeoning enthusiasm for NBS. Beyond that, since biodiversity is different everywhere, more regional knowledge is needed to enable successful implementation outside of the areas from which most of the current research is coming.
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The future of the EU Nature Restoration Law (NRL) was cast in doubt last week as negotiations over its adoption stalled.
The NRL – proposed last year – is a key component of the European Green Deal, and includes legally binding targets to restore degraded ecosystems and the biodiversity and carbon stores they support. The NRL aims to cover at least 20% of the EU’s land and seas with nature restoration measures by 2030, and to address all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. It aims to scale up existing measures such as reforestation, river restoration, greening cities and reducing pollution to restore European ecosystems and the benefits they provide to society.
However, last week, the European People’s Party (EPP) walked out of negotiations, stating that the proposed NRL threatens the EU’s long-term food security. The NRL now enters a critical phase, as the Environment (ENVI) Committee of the European Parliament will vote on the compromise amendments this Thursday 15th June, and the Council will adopt its final position on the 20th June.
In response, environmental scientists, businesses, progressive agriculture communities and NGOs across Europe have mobilised in an attempt to save the NRL. The EPP’s attempts to stop the adoption of the NRL are based on the argument that it places an unfair burden on farmers, who would be required, for example, to reduce pesticide usage and set aside land for environmental restoration.
An open letter by scientists including MERLIN project coordinator Daniel Hering rebuffs these claims about the NRL, and the related Sustainable Use Regulation (SUR). They address six key points, providing evidence to show that the legislation is essential for protecting European food security and sovereignty, boosting fisheries, creating new employment opportunities, and providing a more sustainable model for nature-based economies.
“If successful, both regulations [the NRL and SUR] will be cornerstones of future food security, human health and biodiversity conservation,” said Prof. Hering in an OPPLA blog post. “For the first time, the Nature Restoration Law sets binding targets for the restoration of marine and urban ecosystems, drained peatlands, floodplains and forests. Unfortunately, the current debate is driven by misinformation that are likely to terminate both regulations.
“Our letter addresses the questions, if the regulations are likely to reduce agricultural production, to harm marine fisheries, to cut jobs, to be a burden to the society and if it will be too risky in times of war,” continued Prof. Hering. “Scientific evidence suggests that all these claims are incorrect.”
Another open letter has been published by 207 civil society organisations through the #RestoreNature campaign. This letter – which is signed by major NGOs including Greenpeace, Rewilding Europe and WWF – focuses on the need for a strong NRL as a means of urgently tackling twin biodiversity and climate crises.
The #RestoreNature campaign asks members of the public to sign a petition in support of the NRL ahead of the crucial vote on Thursday. Their letter highlights the pioneering restoration projects across Europe which are already helping restore biodiversity, providing natural flood protection and creating jobs, amongst other benefits.
Their letter states: “When given a chance, and with a helping hand, nature has a remarkable ability to bounce back. Restoring nature means restoring our greatest ally in tackling the climate and biodiversity crises, restoring our health and overall well-being, and restoring the resilience of our economies.”
The #RestoreNature campaign calls on national governments, Members of the European Parliament and the European Commission to adopt the NRL by the end of 2023, and to ensure that large-scale environmental restoration is happening across the continent by 2030. It asks that strong nature restoration targets are set to match the extent and urgency of the biodiversity and climate crises, and met by 2040 at the latest.
The proposed NRL represents a critical element of the European Green Deal, and offers an invaluable opportunity to take ambitious and effective action to restore Europe’s ecosystems, to ensure that nature can continue to support sustainably support our lives. More broadly, it is crucial for reaching the targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, agreed last year. Under this agreement, the world’s nations (including the EU) to restore at least 30% of their degraded habitats by 2030.
You can sign the #RestoreNature petition in support of the EU Nature Restoration Law here.
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This article is supported by the MERLIN project.
On World Peatlands Day 2023 we’re delighted to bring you the third episode of the MERLIN podcast.
Peatlands and wetlands are vital landscapes. They store carbon and so help mitigate the harmful effects of climate change, they help buffer floodwaters and naturally filter drinking water, and they are often rich habitats for biodiversity. But peatlands and wetlands have been widely drained, altered and lost across Europe as a result of human actions.
This episode explores how peatlands and wetlands across the continent are being restored through a series of ambitious projects supported by the MERLIN project. Podcast host Rob St John meets a range of restoration scientists and managers implementing so-called ‘nature-based solutions‘ at their sites across Europe. Their schemes include beaver reintroduction, peatland ‘rewetting’ and wet woodland restoration.
We also hear from MERLIN project coordinator Dr Sebastian Birk on the need for fresh thinking around how to finance restoration schemes. Dr Birk discusses the challenges of accounting for factors such as carbon storage when assessing the benefits that restoration can bring to society.
You can also listen and subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Amazon, and Apple Podcasts. Stay tuned for the next episode soon!
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This article is supported by the MERLIN project.
Sturgeons were once so highly prized in the UK that in 1324, King Edward II declared them a ‘royal fish’. However, decades of overfishing, habitat loss and blocked migration routes have caused sturgeons to almost completely disappear from UK rivers and coastlines.
This population decline is not an isolated trend: the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) considers sturgeons the most critically endangered group of species on Earth. Across Europe, conservationists are seeking to implement large-scale plans to bring back sturgeon populations from the brink along major rivers such as the Danube.
This week, a team of conservationists led by the Zoological Society of London have launched an ambitious plan to restore populations of Atlantic and European sturgeons to UK waters. The UK Sturgeon Conservation and Action Plan aims to help restore sturgeon habitat and migration passages whilst reducing accidental bycatch. It forms part of major Europe-wide restoration initiatives to help save critically endangered European sturgeons from the brink of extinction.
“Growing up to 5m in length, with long whisker-like barbels and diamond-shaped armoured plates along their backs, sturgeons look like they’ve swum straight out of a palaeontologist’s textbook,” said Hannah McCormick from ZSL. “These impressive and ancient animals were once common in UK rivers and along our coastline, so it’s hardly surprising that they were declared ‘royal fish’ by King Edward II back in the 14th Century.
“Fast-forward seven hundred years, and sturgeons have all but disappeared from our waters, after dam construction in rivers blocking their migration routes and overfishing caused numbers to plummet in the latter half of the 20th century,” McCormick explained.
Both species of sturgeon native to the UK – European and Atlantic – are migratory. They are born in rivers, before migrating downstream to the sea, where they live most of their lives – which can stretch more than 60 years – returning to freshwater every few years to reproduce. This means that restoration efforts need to take into account the wide range of habitats that they pass through, and the numerous people and organisations responsible for their management.
As a result, the new action plan has five key goals. First, to map essential sturgeon habitats and migration routes across UK marine, estuarine and freshwaters to identify areas for restoration and protection from threats. Second, to boost European sturgeon restoration projects – particularly the Pan-European Action Plan for Sturgeons – by supporting UK sturgeon population recovery. Third, to minimise accidental sturgeon bycatch by working with marine fishers.
Fourth, the action plan aims to engage political and public audiences to actively support sturgeon restoration efforts. It highlights the role of sturgeons as ‘flagship species’ which draw attention to wider aquatic conservation issues. Finally, it aims to close evidence gaps around sturgeon populations by supporting scientific research which helps underpin conservation decision-making.
The action plan was created by the UK Sturgeon Alliance – a group of research organisations and NGOs formed in 2020 which works to restore native sturgeon populations. The Alliance have set up a website – Save the Sturgeon – where the public can report sturgeon sightings to help researchers better understand their population dynamics.
“The development of this Action Plan has been an exciting first step that contributes to the European efforts of restoring sturgeons,” said Jenny Murray from the Blue Marine Foundation, a member of the UK Sturgeon Alliance. “This has been a truly collaborative approach that has highlighted the interest and need to see habitats in a good enough condition for their return. The public can support sturgeons return by raising awareness of this beautiful species and reporting any sightings to the Save the Sturgeon website.”
“We now have over 5,200 records of sturgeon in rivers, estuaries and coastal waters all around the UK, since at least 1700, added Steve Colclough from the Institute of Fisheries Management, another member of the member of the UK Sturgeon Alliance. “Our waters clearly formed part of the natural range of these great migrators. Until recently, the numbers visiting us have been so low that these were only recognised as occasional vagrants. In the 18th and 19th century many fish were captured in our rivers and in some cases where they were not offered to the crown, they were removed and destroyed as strange exotic sea monsters. Now we know better, we can help conserve these flagship species for future generations to see.”
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This article is supported by the MERLIN project.
Turning the tide on the ‘triple’ global water crisis
Decades of neglect of the global hydrological cycle have led to a triple water crisis which needs to be urgently addressed, according to a major report published last month.
Human water needs are not being met across the world, whilst global environmental change is causing increasingly extreme droughts, floods, storms and wildfires. Human actions are beginning to alter the global hydrological cycle and threaten the source of freshwater – precipitation – in many areas, the report warns.
Published by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, “Turning the Tide: A Call to Collective Action” argues that urgent attention is needed to tackle these issues. The report states that a global transformation of the economics and governance of water is required to help sustain humans and nature in a rapidly changing world.
The report places water at the heart of the ongoing climate and biodiversity crises. “Every view of climate change that excludes water is incomplete,” says Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and co-chair of the Commission. “For the first time in human history, we can no longer count on the source of all freshwater, our precipitation.
“We are changing the entire global hydrological cycle,” continues Rockström. “Each 1°C of global warming adds about 7% moisture to the water cycle, supercharging and intensifying it, leading to more and more extreme weather events.”
The climatic and biodiversity impacts of the water crisis have significant impacts on human life. The report highlights the stark figures that more than two billion people still lack access to safely-managed water globally, whilst one child under five dies every 80 seconds from diseases caused by polluted water. The water crisis has pushed communities and regions across the Global South into acute food insecurity.
These impacts are not the consequences of freak events, population growth or economic development, the report argues. Instead, they are the product of decades of mismanagement of water – including pollution, over-abstraction and habitat destruction – which has pushed the global water cycle out of balance for the first time in human history. The report highlights the prospect of a 40% shortfall in freshwater supply by 2030, with acute shortages in water-stressed regions.
The Commission outlines the need to transform the economics and governance of water in ways which recognise and manage the water cycle as a global common good. This means bold collective action across political borders to restore and safeguard rivers, streams, lakes, groundwater and wetlands across catchments, countries and continents.
“We need new economic thinking to help move from reactively fixing to proactively shaping economies to become inclusive and sustainable,” says Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London and co-chair of the Commission. “Moving from sectoral to mission-oriented innovation policies with a common good approach can help us put equity and justice at the centre of water partnerships and bring multiple sectors together to tackle our biggest water challenges,” Mazzucato adds.
The report sets out seven points to structure a more sustainable and just water future. First, it stress that water is a global common good which connects communities and nations across borders. This means that collective action to protect the water cycle is highlighted as being in the interests of all. Second, there is the need to mobilise public and private bodies alongside local communities to apply and scale-up innovative new approaches to providing clean and safe water. The report emphasises the need to shape markets, direct investments and design policies towards positive water goals.
Third, the report argues that our economic systems underprice the value of water, which leads to unsustainable use of freshwater resources, and a lack of access to water for the poor and vulnerable in many areas. In other words, the multiple benefits that water provides must become visible on public and private balance sheets through better accounting of their natural resource values. This should be coupled with targeted subsidies to ensure low-income communities have access to clean water, the report states.
Fourth, there is the need to phase out government subsidies – which are estimate to total more than USD 700 billion annually – to the agriculture and water industries which encourage excessive water consumption and environmental damage. Fifth, Just Water Partnerships (similar to the Just Energy Transition Partnerships launched at COP26) which enable investments in water access, resilience and sustainability in low- and middle-income countries should be more widely established across the world.
Sixth, the report states that we are in a critical window of time to to shift the economics and governance of the global water systems to help tackle human, climate and biodiversity crises. The authors identify the need to upscale and mobilise finance towards innovative new technologies which can help store and recycle water, tackle inefficiencies in water infrastructure, and incentive water-friendly farming systems.
Finally, the report argues that there is a need for more joined-up and co-ordinated global governance of water. This process would require better dialogue and collective action across governments, to help strengthen existing environmental policies, make trade policies more sustainable, encourage better data collection to track water systems, and strengthen partnerships with global financial institutions. In the longer-term this could involve the establishment of a new Water Convention or Global Water pact which encourages greater collaboration across nations and communities.
“Solving the water challenge requires higher ambition, but it’s an ambition that is actually achievable if we work collectively and accelerate actions in the current decade,” says Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister in Singapore and co-chair of the Commission.“We have the scientific expertise, we know what the basic policy reorientations should be, and there is no real lack of finance globally. The task is to organise these resources for a sustainable and globally-equitable future – that’s in every nation’s interest.”
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This article is supported by the MERLIN project.
Nature-based solutions and economic sectors in freshwater restoration: four themes to strengthen collaboration
Protecting natural environments has long relied on co-operation between the different people and organisations who live and work in them. As such, it is widely recognised that biodiversity conservation and restoration are inherently social activities. Accordingly, they require careful consideration of the cultural, political and economic contexts of the landscapes in which they take place.
The nature-based solutions concept offers emerging opportunities to navigate these contexts to help strengthen freshwater restoration efforts. Nature-based solutions aim to use natural processes to help tackle socio-environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and flooding.
At the core of the nature-based solutions concept is a belief that ecological restoration can bring significant benefits to both society and biodiversity. The EU-funded MERLIN project explores how these benefits can act as a focus for collaborations between different economic sectors to help mainstream freshwater restoration.
MERLIN works with representatives from six economic sectors – agriculture, hydropower, insurance, navigation, peat extraction, and water supply and sanitation to mainstream nature-based solutions in their activities across Europe. Project partners recently released a briefing exploring how nature-based solutions are understood across these sectors in Europe, and – vitally – how they might help encourage collaborations which strengthen restoration efforts.
The team learnt four valuable lessons from talking to sectoral representatives which have wider implications for ecological restoration initiatives elsewhere.
Demonstrating the value of nature-based solutions
First, whilst sectoral representatives were largely aware of nature-based solutions in freshwater restoration, they were not always persuaded of the need for radical change or transformation. Crucially, representatives were not yet convinced that they could rely on nature-based solutions to deliver their sectoral objectives.
A key challenge is to illustrate how nature-based solutions can help sectors advance EU Green Deal goals. Adopted in 2019, the Green Deal has wide-ranging ambitions to support environmental protection, green economies, sustainable agriculture and technological innovation across Europe. The MERLIN briefing suggests that sectoral representatives were broadly supportive of its vision, and the task is to demonstrate how nature-based solutions can help achieve it.
Communicating and providing evidence
Second, whilst the language of nature-based solutions is not yet widely used across these sectors, there is an understanding of concepts of sustainability and ‘working with nature’. The MERLIN researchers suggest that this provides a strong basis to foreground the potential social and economic benefits offered by nature-based solutions in restoration.
Third, sectoral representatives seek clear evidence that nature-based solutions can bring tangible benefits to their own initiatives. In particular, this involves demonstrating how nature-based solutions can work effectively across entire catchments. Moreover, there is a need for clarity over how the ‘burden-sharing’ of restoring nature will be coordinated and governed.
Managing synergies and trade-offs
Finally, the MERLIN researchers identify strong synergies between the different sectors. However, these are balanced by potential trade-offs and challenges, for example over the location and scale of benefits generated. Through initiatives such as the MERLIN Academy, the project seeks to build new communities of practice around nature-based solutions to help communicate their potential for economic sectors, and manage these trade-offs and tensions.
Co-author and co-lead of research Kirsty Blackstock from the James Hutton Institute said, “It has been extremely instructive to talk to, and learn from, representatives from these economic sectors. Through this discussion, we’ve identified cooperation points where we can start our journey of transformation together. We don’t always agree – there are often difficult trade-offs to resolve – but through knowledge sharing, solutions can be found.”
Co-author and co-lead of research Anna Bérczi-Siket from WWF added, “Putting a focus on freshwater restoration and nature-based solutions in the six economic sectors’ actions requires a paradigm shift.
“Our first briefing introduces the starting point of our formulating community of practice which includes the six MERLIN sectors. Side by side with this community we will draw up a cross-sectoral route map to the change we want to achieve together.
“Our cooperation is a good example of how the integration principle of the environmental policy can be put into practice – which also requires that environmental and sustainability considerations become an integral part of the decision-making processes and actions of other sectors,” Bérczi-Siket said.
Overall, the briefing suggests that there is significant potential for nature-based solutions to help address social and biodiversity goals through strengthened collaborations across economic sectors. The challenge over the coming years is to provide clear evidence and recommendations to help sectors mainstream nature-based solutions in their everyday practices.
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Read the MERLIN briefing: Mainstreaming aquatic restoration using Nature-based Solutions: Briefing on national / EU sector perceptions, workshops, and tailored briefings per sector
“A rapidly closing window”: the urgent need for meaningful climate action for people and nature
Climate change poses a significant threat to both human wellbeing and global ecosystems, but “there is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all,” according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released this week.
The IPCC AR6 report emphasises that whilst the situation is increasingly serious, there are “multiple, feasible and effective options” available to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help societies adapt to human-caused climate changes.
“Mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damages for nature and people, it will also provide wider benefits,” said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee. “This Synthesis Report underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a liveable sustainable future for all.”
Five years ago, the 2018 IPCC report outlined the challenges of restricting global warming levels to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. However, continued increases in greenhouse gas emissions has already led to current global temperatures around 1.1°C higher than those around 1850–1900.
The new report stresses that every increment of warming escalates hazards such as heatwaves and heavier rainfall. As a result, increasingly extreme climate-related risks around drought, flooding and water security place increasing pressure on the health and livelihoods of global communities, particularly those in developing nations.
“Climate justice is crucial because those who have contributed least to climate change are being disproportionately affected,” said co-author Aditi Mukherji from the International Water Management Institute. “Almost half of the world’s population lives in regions that are highly vulnerable to climate change. In the last decade, deaths from floods, droughts and storms were fifteen times higher in highly vulnerable regions,“ she continued.
As we regularly highlight on this blog, freshwater ecosystems are significantly impacted by a changing climate. The IPCC report highlights the interdependencies of climate change and water. It outlines how increasingly extreme climatic events have left many global communities vulnerable to floods, droughts, reduced water and food security, and water-borne diseases. Moreover, it highlights the substantial, and increasingly irreversible, losses of plants and animals in freshwater ecosystems driven by heat extremes and changes in the water cycle.
The report also highlights the potential of freshwater nature-based solutions in helping mitigate the effects of climate change. Such measures include wetland restoration, reforesting river catchments and natural water management and storage in agricultural landscapes. These approaches can help buffer floods and droughts, and offer biodiversity habitat. The report states that 30–50% of global land, freshwater and ocean areas need to be effectively conserved in order to maintain their ecosystem resilience to climate change.
The report emphasises the need for governments to rapidly implement ‘climate resilient’ development strategies which shift our global reliance on fossil fuels towards clean energies and technologies. These include wind and solar power, energy efficiency schemes, ‘green’ low-carbon cities, transport and agriculture, alongside halting deforestation.
The report states that at the moment global governments are not doing enough to mitigate the impacts of current climate change, let alone to achieve the targets of the Paris Agreement on emissions. Indeed, IPCC models suggest that without a strengthening of global climate policies, global warming of 3.2°C is projected by 2100.
The message is clear, humanity is at a climate crossroads. “The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years,” state the report authors.
The report argues that increasing finance to climate investments is a key step to achieve the rapid cuts in carbon emissions needed to slow down global warming. It calls on governments, investors and central banks to help scale up deep emissions cuts through ambitious policy and governance.
“Transformational changes are more likely to succeed where there is trust, where everyone works together to prioritise risk reduction, and where benefits and burdens are shared equitably,” Hoesung Lee said. “We live in a diverse world in which everyone has different responsibilities and different opportunities to bring about change. Some can do a lot while others will need support to help them manage the change.”
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Read the Synthesis Report of the IPCC Sixth Assesment Report (AR6)
Nature conservation in the bio-metaverse
Technological advances offer significant potential for environmental engagement and biodiversity conservation, say guest authors Kristian Meissner and Kristiina Valtanen.
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Biodiversity is disappearing at an unprecedented rate. Protecting biodiversity through rapid and effective action is essential to secure the future of both humanity and ecosystems. There is an urgent need for new forms of financing for environmental protection, because traditional funding is not growing fast enough.
The choices of individual citizens can play an important role in halting biodiversity loss. It is important to make everyone understand that their own actions to preserve biodiversity are meaningful. Individual actions are a central part of the needed systemic shift towards a more sustainable society.
Increasing knowledge can help us understand the significance of our own actions. However, it is not realistic to rely on knowledge alone, as not everyone has the interest or time to delve deeper into biodiversity topics. How can the potential of dormant citizens who are largely estranged from nature be harnessed to maximise the protection of biodiversity?
The world’s largest companies, Google, Amazon, and Facebook (GAFA), could serve as a model. In just a couple of decades, they have succeeded in radically changing our everyday habits. GAFA are incredibly skilful at exploiting people’s basic social needs for their own ends on their digital platforms.
At the end of last year, Facebook announced its next development goal: the internet of the future. According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the purpose of this ‘metaverse’ is to make all online interactions more natural by providing a “sense of presence.” In addition to Facebook, many other companies are heavily involved in the development of the metaverse. Soon, applications will no longer open in front of us only through screens, but we will be able to immerse ourselves into the internet.
The metaverse uses Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to assign ownership and trade digital things. NFTs are a type of digital certificate of authenticity. Indeed, unique digital skins have real monetary value, which many parents of teenagers already have come to realise, given NFTs have been exploited in the gaming world for a long time.
Interestingly, the promotional language around the metaverse is filled with words that refer to nature: universe, ecosystems and naturalness. Could nature and the metaverse share more than just terms with each other? With smart integration of the physical and digital worlds, unique natural objects, ecosystems and conservation measures could be tied to NFTs.
A rare orchid could be acquired and put on the wall of your study in the metaverse, and the funds from its purchase could be invested in the conservation work of its natural habitat. In the same way, you could buy a piece of Amazonian rainforest, or even a piece of a traditional Finnish biotope, such as a meadow, bog or wooded land. Your purchase could be the virtual background of your next Fortnite game.
Of course, the equivalence of NFTs and their corresponding real-world objects should be objectively verified, so that a sound basis for the value of tokens can be established.
Environmentally friendly measures undertaken by individual citizens that rapidly promote biodiversity, such as extending the intervals between mowing grasses, replacing grasslands, and encouraging plant-based diets could also be tokenised in the same way. This would not only create new forms of incentives, but would also make the importance of grassroots action as part of environmental protection more visible.
The metaverse has been said to be the embodiment of the internet. It could also offer a valuable embodiment of nature for an urbanite who has distanced themselves from nature, and provide novel means for reconnecting with it.
In the bio-metaverse, the expulsion of mosquitoes from your porch could be handled by buying a few NFT birdhouses for swallows instead of cans of insecticides. Alternatively, one could invest even more extensively in the market of insectivorous species. The bio-metaverse could serve as a platform for the most diverse work to protect biodiversity.
Of course, there is still a long way to go before all the necessary information about biodiversity can be brought into the bio-metaverse. This requires, for example, strengthening actual biodiversity research. Monitoring of conservation measures should also be stepped up to avoid mistakes and greenwashing. Despite these obvious challenges, no stone – not even digital ones – should be left unturned when looking for ways to make nature conservation more effective and affordable.
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Translated and edited from an article first published in the Finnish language in the Talouselämä newpaper in October 2022.
This article is supported by the MERLIN project.
MERLIN Innovation Awards celebrates innovative approaches to freshwater restoration at 2023 ceremony
Last week, the EU MERLIN project announced the winners of its annual Innovation Awards, which highlight cutting-edge solutions for modern freshwater restoration. Entries from organisations across the world were assessed by an expert panel, and shortlists for the two categories – Service of the Year and Product of the Year – were drawn up. Two winners were announced at a busy and energetic ceremony on Wednesday.
The winners of the Service of the Year are Plastic Fischer, a social enterprise which collects and manages river plastic to prevent it entering the oceans. The organisation was founded in 2019 in response to its founders witnessing the continuous stream of plastic, styrofoam and other waste that floated down the Mekong River in Vietnam, towards the ocean. The idea was formed to build a waterwheel that automatically collects plastic waste from rivers, and lifts it to shore to be disposed of.
Further work on the Citrus River in Indonesia – one of the world’s most polluted waterways – then led the Plastic Fischer team to develop a floating fence which collected rubbish – the TrashBoom. Now working across India and Indonesia, the organisation has collected over 500,000kg of plastic waste since April 2021, and created over 70 local jobs. Plastic Fischer make their river cleaning technology open source and available for free on the website, with the intention that other NGOs can adopt their approach to help reduce plastic waste in global rivers using simple technology.
“I am very proud that we have been awarded the Merlin Innovations Award for Service of the Year,” said Karsten Hirsch, CEO and Co-Founder of Plastic Fischer. “Thank you so much for recognising the hard work of our entire team and the impact we create.”
The winner of the Product of the Year is Ecocean, a French company which specialises in developing new technologies to support the sustainable use of aquatic environments. One of the organisation’s flagship innovations is FLOLIZ – a series of artificial floating rafts which help boost biodiversity, both above and below the water’s surface.
The FLOLIZ rafts are made from recycled (and recyclable) materials, and can be introduced into rivers, canals and lakes to help compensate for habitat loss due to human activity. The rafts are planted with local vegetation species to offer habitat for birds, bees, insects and amphibians.
Underneath the rafts, the Ecocean team install artificial nurseries, called Biohut. These nurseries are made from recyclable materials, including steel, wood and oyster shell, and help provide spawning grounds, nurseries and feeding areas for fish populations. Together, the FLOLIZ and Biohut approaches help bring back biodiversity habitat in aquatic ecosystems where it has been lost.
“Ecocean is very honoured to receive the Product of the Year 2023 award of the MIA awards, for the solutions that we developed with Biomatrix Water to enhance the ecological functions of littoral zones in freshwater,” said a project spokesperson. “The award acknowledges all our efforts to provide functioning habitats to urban and artificial waterbodies, in order to bring back ecological functions, complex ecosystems and biodiversity in habitat-depleted areas.”
The MERLIN Innovation Awards celebrates new and widely-applicable solutions for restoring freshwater ecosystems. The awards – organised by project partner Connectology – recognise the need for restoration projects to better engage with economic markets to support transformative ecological improvements.
You can find out about the ten shortlisted projects, and the expert jury who selected them.
This article is supported by the MERLIN project.
We all need freshwater biodiversity
We are in a crucial ‘window’ of time to protect and restore global freshwater biodiversity, according to a major new journal article. The authors – a group of scientists from across the world – write that there is growing public and political recognition of the need to ‘mainstream’ biodiversity conservation across all areas of everyday life.
Writing in the WIRES Water journal, the authors highlight the vital roles that freshwater biodiversity plays in supporting human lives: from food and materials; to cultural and recreation; and climate regulation to water purification. As a result, conserving and restoring freshwater habitats offers a path towards achieving what the UN term the ‘future we want’: a more sustainable future for people and nature.
Reflecting on the opportunities offered by the recent IPBES and UNFCCC biodiversity and climate policy conferences, the authors identify the critical ecosystem services which depend on freshwater biodiversity. Resulting from collaborations between scientists across the world, the paper highlights the diverse ways in which ‘people need freshwater biodiversity’.
“Our author team came together across disciplines, career stage, and geography because we were all in need of a clear, simple resource that demonstrated why freshwater biodiversity is so important for people,” explains lead author Dr. Abigail Lynch from the US Geological Survey. “In a series of coordinated, structured, rich discussions, we distilled down an enormous list to the nine key ecosystem services and functions in the manuscript.”
The paper highlights a varied set of global examples of ecosystem services across material, non-material and regulating categories. The authors focus on indigenous freshwater biodiversity, that is, the species which are native to the habitats in which they are found. They argue that whilst freshwater conservation, human livelihoods and sustainable development are closely linked, there is still need to mainstream freshwater biodiversity in international policy and water management.
“Some of these services are very tangible, like fish or plants used as food or swimming in a pristine lake for recreation,” says lead author Prof. Sonja Jähnig from Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Germany. “Others are hidden below the surface as they are run by microorganisms too small to be seen such as water purification or might only be important in the future, for example genetic resources.”
The paper takes us on a tour of the diverse ways that freshwater biodiversity helps support human lives across the world. Materially, it explores the food fisheries of the Lower Mekong River Basin, the health benefits of frog species in the Hindu-Kush region, and the products – including fish skin shoes and notebooks – made from freshwater biodiversity across the Amazon basin. Non-materially, it documents the importance of freshwater crayfish in European culture, the value of dragonflies in environmental education in South Africa, and the varied recreational activities supported by the North American Great Lakes.
Freshwater biodiversity is also vital in regulating many of the environmental processes that support humans. The paper highlights the value of catchment integrity in the un-fragmented Parana-Paraguay corridor, the climate regulation provided by riparian regrowth in Southwestern Australia, and the water purification and nutrient cycling processes supported by wetland ecosystems in Uganda.
This global tour of freshwater biodiversity focuses attention on local, site-specific interactions between people and nature, whilst drawing out broader-scale themes about the value of freshwater life. As a result, the paper serves as a timely and convincing reminder to policy makers of the pressing need to conserve and restore freshwater ecosystems in the face of growing human pressures and climatic breakdown.
“We need a broader understanding that we are critically dependent on important ecosystem provided by biodiversity in freshwater ecosystems,” continues co-author Dr. Dave Tickner from WWF UK. “We urgently need to slow down the loss of biodiversity.”
“Freshwaters have been managed primarily as an important resource rather than as the special and sensitive habitat for an extraordinary variety of organisms that provide all these functions,” concludes Dr. Abigail Lynch. “Policymakers can integrate biodiversity conservation more fully into water management.”
The nine key things we need from freshwater biodiversity
Food: Although we usually think of fish when we think of food from freshwater, the list is large and ranges from animals to plants to microorganisms.
Other animal and plant products: Materials from freshwater are used to make utilitarian and ornamental items, such as clothes made from fish leather, nail files from fish scales and scissors from piranha teeth. Aquatic plants are used as building materials and furniture.
Health and genetic resources: Algae, aquatic plants and animal products – from collagens from fish to secretion products from frog skin – are used in medicine and pharmacology.
Recreational opportunities: The recreational activities enabled by freshwater biodiversity are considered cultural services. Swimming and boating take place where the water quality is considered good. This is directly related to the living organisms in the water body, which can prevent algal blooms, for example.
Importance for culture, religion and spirituality: Almost all cultures around large lakes or rivers have rituals and traditions linked to the creatures who live there.
Opportunities for education and technological advancement: From formal curricula in primary schools to targeted extracurricular activities for youth – education schemes help to build connections and foster a lifelong commitment to freshwater conservation and responsible stewardship.
Climate regulation: Freshwater ecosystems are critical for the storage and sequestration of carbon and methane.
Catchment integrity: Riparian and aquatic plants reduce water velocity, improve bank stability, retain sediments, and filter nutrients and pollutants.
Self-purification of water and nutrient cycles: Billions of microorganisms, plants, algae and animals clean freshwater ecosystems by filtering excess nutrients, pathogens and pollutants. This is crucial for drinking water production.
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