At the resumed fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA 5.2) held in February 2022 in Nairobi, the Assembly adopted resolution 5/5 of 2 March 2022, entitled "Nature-based solutions for supporting sustainable development”.
The resolution provides the first multilaterally agreed definition of nature-based solutions’ as “actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services, resilience and biodiversity benefits”.
Through the Resolution, the United Nations Environmental Assembly “Requests the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, subject to the availability of resources and to further support the implementation of nature-based solutions, as defined in the present resolution, to convene intergovernmental consultations in a transparent, inclusive, regionally balanced manner, striving for gender balance, in order to undertake the following:
(a) Compile examples of best practice in nature-based solutions, based on the best available science;
(b) Assess existing and discuss potential new proposals, criteria, standards and guidelines to address divergences, with a view to achieving a common understanding among Member States for the implementation of nature-based solutions, including to support Member States in designing, implementing and evaluating nature-based solutions, building on existing work, initiatives and platforms, as appropriate, and without prejudice to existing efforts and initiatives of and new proposals from individual Member States;
(c) Identify options for supporting sustainable investment in nature-based solutions and share information on bilateral and multilateral sources of finance to enable developing countries to develop and deploy nature-based solutions."
In October 2022, Dr. Leila Benali, President of the United Nations Environment Assembly, appointed H. E. Mrs. Giovanna Valverde Stark, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to UNEP and UN-Habitat, and Ms. Sikeade Egbuwalo, Senior Forest Officer, Ministry of Environment of Nigeria and Nigerian national focal point to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), as Co-Chairs of the intergovernmental consultations on nature-based solutions. The secretariat supporting the co-chairs on this process is hosted at UNEP in Nairobi.
It is planned that the consultations will take place in 2023, and will comprise an initial global meeting carried out virtually in May, a series of regional consultations over June and July, carried out virtually with each of the UN regions, and a five day in-person meeting in October encompassing both regional and global consultations. It is expected that exact dates and times will be confirmed before the end of March 2023.
