Ecosystem-based Adaptation

Ecosystem-based adaptation is a strategy for adapting to climate change that harnesses nature-based solutions and ecosystem services. For instance, protecting coastal habitats like mangroves provides natural flood defences; reforestation can hold back desertification and recharge groundwater supplies in times of drought; and water bodies like rivers and lakes provide natural drainage to reduce flooding. See more examples here.  

UNEP is currently supporting over 45 ecosystem-based adaptation projects. Combined, these projects are aiming to restore around 241,000 hectares of ecosystems while benefiting 3.5 million people around the world.

Often through win-win outcomes, ecosystem-based adaptation protects vulnerable communities from extreme weather while simultaneously providing a variety of ecological benefits so crucial for human well-being, such as clean water and food. Though primarily an adaptation approach, ecosystem-based adaptation can also contribute to climate change mitigation by reducing the emissions that transpire from habitat loss and ecosystem degradation.

Our Projects

Explore our EbA projects by clicking on the map below:

Ecosystem-based Adaptation Briefing Note Series

1. Introduction to EbA
2. Navigating the Adaptation Challenge
3. EbA in Different Ecosystems
4. Selecting Complementary Adaptation Measures
5. Developing the Economic Case for EbA
6. Integrating EbA into National Planning
7. UNEP & EbA
8. Urban EbA: Regreening Cities to Tackle Climate Change
9. Coastal EbA: How Nature Protects Our Shores
10. EbA and Forestry
11. EbA in Agriculture: A Path to Climate-resilient Food Systems

Global EbA Fund

The Global EbA Fund is providing grants to innovative approaches to ecosystem-based adaptation. The Fund opened its first Call for Proposals on 25th March 2021, and you can submit an application here. Crucially, the Fund aims to encourage ‘catalytic’ initiatives to help overcome identified barriers for upscaling EbA. By supporting catalytic interventions, the Fund engages in strategic policy mainstreaming, and incentivises innovative finance mechanisms and private sector investments. The Fund will be collecting knowledge, evidence and stories about ecosystem-based adaptation initiatives, along with lessons for upscaling the practice. 

Toolkits & Resources

• A Decade of Ecosystem-based Adaptation: Lessons from UNEP - link
• Adopting a Human Rights-based Approach to Ecosystem-based Adaptation - link
• Harnessing Nature to Build Climate Resilience: Scaling Up the Use of Ecosystem-based Adaptation - link
• Ecosystem-based Adaptation Stakeholder Dialogue Report - link
• Seven Lessons on Using Ecosystem Restoration for Climate Change Adaptation - link
• Ecosystem-based Adaptation Planning: ALivE - Adaptation, Livelihoods and Ecosystems – link
• Handbook: A Handbook for Ecosystem-based Adaptation in Mountain, Dryland, and Coastal Ecosystems - link
• Massive Open Online Course: Nature-based Solutions for Disaster and Climate Resilience – link
• Course: Finance and Climate Action in Cities: Nature-based Solutions as an Adaptation Mechanism in Latin America and the Caribbean – link (Spanish)
• Reference Guide: Research on Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) – link
• Options for Ecosystem-based Adaptation in Coastal Environments - link
• Resource Guide: Integrating Ecosystem-based Adaptation in Education Curriculum - link
• Panorama EbA Solutions Portal - link
• Nature-based solutions to climate change adaptation - link
• Guidelines on Mangrove Restoration for the Western Indian Ocean Region - link
• Blue Nature-based Solutions in Nationally Determined Contributions: A Booklet for Successful Implementation - link
• Ecosystem-based Adaptation Technical Guidelines in Albania - link
• Guidance on Integrating Ecosystem Considerations in Climate Change Vulnerability and Impact Assessments – link
• Guidebook for Monitoring & Evaluating EbA Interventions – link
• Making Ecosystem-based Adaptation Effective: a Framework for Defining Qualification Criteria and Quality Standards – link

Case Studies & Lessons Learned

• Financing Ecosystem-based Adaptation in Cities: A Case Study from Mexico - link
• Gender-responsive Ecosystem-based Adaptation: A Case Study from El Salvador - link
• A Watershed Approach in Ecosystem-based Adaptation: A Case Study from Latin America and the Caribbean - link
• Restoring Climate-resilient Mangroves and Communities: A Case Study from Djibouti - link
• People-centric Ecosystem-based Adaptation: A Case Study from Sudan - link
• Lessons Learned: Ecosystem-based Adaptation and an Integrated Resilient Rice Model in Madagascar - link
• Lessons Learned: Climate Adaptation in Tanzania with Ecosystem Restoration & Flood Defence Infrastructure - link
• Good Practice Brief: South-South Cooperation for Upscaling Nature Based Solutions for Climate Adaptation - link
• Forestry in the Gambia: A Climate Adaptation Case Study – link
• Mountain Resilience: Torrent Catchment Restoration in the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan – link

Op-eds & Stories

• Sudan’s water crisis and the women fighting back - link
• The race to save Zambia’s wetlands - link
• Farmers adapt to climate crisis on Burundi’s precarious hillsides - link
• Forests and passion: a hero’s guide to resisting climate change – link
• Six ways nature can protect us from climate change – link
• “Sponge City”: San Salvador uses nature to fight floods – link
• Albania: How a lagoon became a frontline defence against climate change – link
• Bend, but never break: weaving a climate-proof future– link
•  “I’m proud to have brought the rain back”: Reforestation revives Cambodian mountains– link
• From Rice To Riches: Adapting To Climate Change On Cambodia’s Coasts - link
• Banking on nature: a Mexican city adapts to climate change - link
• Helping Gambian youth find greener pastures at home– link
• South-South cooperation to tackle climate change– link
• Darfur: Adapting to an encroaching desert– link
• “Where there used to be so much there is so little”: Climate Change in the Comoros - link
• Oasis Dreaming: Regreening the Djiboutian Desert - link
• Glacier collapse in India a worrying sign of what`s to come – link
• ‘Seawater is coming into our farms and killing the plants’– link
• Ecosystem-based adaptation and green recovery: Building back better from Covid-19 - link
• Flood walls and forests help Djibouti adapt to climate change - link
• 5 ways to make buildings climate change resilient - link

Videos

• What is Ecosystem-based Adaptation? - link
• Regreening San Salvador to fight climate change - link
• Using Nature to Fight Climate Change in Albania - link
• Saving the Seychelles: Reforestation to fight climate change - link
• Upscaling Ecosystem-based Adaptation in Albania - link
• Documentary: Sustainable climate-resilient livelihoods in Mauritania – link (French)
• Documentary: EbA South – link
• The Living Shoreline: Building a resilient waterfront in Manhattan - link
• Mangroves: A Super Solution - link
• A Practical Guide to Climate-resilient Buildings & Communities - link