As climate change effects intensify, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) emerge as potent tools to bolster resilience against disasters and climate shifts. Beyond serving as natural shields against hazards and reducing exposure, they play a dual role by extracting greenhouse gases and fostering ecosystem health. Both aspects are pivotal for realizing Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) objectives. This training will acquaint attendees with NbS in the context of DRR and CCA, encompassing foundational principles and globally recognized NbS standards. Through real-world case studies from various Asian and Pacific regions, participants will gain insights into conceptualizing and rolling out NbS strategies for enhanced resilience. Participants will formulate an action blueprint detailing NbS integration into DRR and CCA initiatives by the course's end, ensuring alignment with global best practices.

Cooperating with nature and enhancing its fundamentals are crucial for achieving climate and disaster risk reduction goals and addressing the complex societal challenges exacerbated by unplanned development over the past century. In March 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) officially adopted a definition for Nature-based Solutions (NbS) as efforts to protect, sustainably manage, and restore both natural and modified ecosystems in a way that effectively and adaptively addresses societal challenges, benefiting both people and nature. NbS, including forest conservation, wetland preservation, and restorative agriculture, significantly boosts resilience to disasters and climate change.

NbS are increasingly integral to our strategy for risk reduction, hazard exposure limitation, and resilience building against climate change and disasters. A study of 85 nature-based interventions in the global south found a 95% reduction in vulnerability, primarily by diminishing ecosystem sensitivity to climate impacts. These interventions also help reduce ecological exposure and boost social adaptive capacity. Analyses indicate that NbS are essential for meeting 37% of the mitigation goals of the Paris Agreement and keeping global temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius. NbS leverages nature’s potential and supports human rights, economic growth, sustainable livelihoods, health, biodiversity, gender equality, and other social and economic aspects. A well-executed NbS can effectively and cost-effectively address these issues.

This training course will introduce participants to the fundamentals of NbS and provide practical insights on their application in the face of climate change and disaster risks. The course will explore the basics of implementing NbS for resilience building and include case studies from various countries.

The specific objectives of the training are to:

• Introduce ecosystem services and nature-based solutions covering concepts, fundamental principles, and their importance in strengthening resilience to climate and disaster-induced hazards.
• Orient the participants to international frameworks around nature-based solutions, including IUCN’s Global Standard for nature-based solutions
• Provide practical insights to implement NbS for DRR and CCA and mainstream nature-based solutions into policies.

The training will be conducted in a blended modality. The onboarding for the training course will be conducted online. The onboarding will cover fundamentals that are prerequisites for joining the course. This will be followed by a 3-day in-person training, which will use a case-study-based approach to introduce the mainstreaming and implementation aspects of NbS. During the in-person training, experts will train and mentor participants to identify entry points for NbS in their areas of work.

1. Introductory Online Module (online self-paced)

The onboarding for this training course has two online sessions, each of 2 hours covering fundamentals to ensure that the participants have some uniformity in understanding the technical context of climate resilience and services provided by ecosystems. These sessions will also allow participants to engage with each other and break the ice before they join the in-person training.
1.1. Session 1: Fundamentals of climate and disaster risk reduction and resilience
1.2. Session 2: Ecosystem-based services and fundamentals of green-grey and hybrid infrastructure

2. Module 2: Fundamentals of Nature-based Solutions (online self-paced)

This module will initiate the orientation of nature-based solutions. It will help orient participants to a landscape of solutions, the benefits from NbS, and how they can effectively help manage risks from the changing climate.
2.1. Session 1: Nature-based Solutions: Key Concepts, Fundamental Principles, and the need for nature-based solutions in managing climate and disaster risks.

3. Module 3: International Frameworks and Standards Around Nature-based Solutions (Face-to-Face)

This module will inform the participants on current international and global frameworks around nature-based solutions. A key session in this module will be on the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based solutions. These standards provide a common understanding of what constitutes NbS and support a shared vision to use nature for sustainable development effectively.
3.1. Session 4: International frameworks, opportunities, and challenges around Nature-based solutions
3.2. Session 5: IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based solutions

4. Module 4: Implementing Nature-based Solutions (Face-to-Face)

This module will move towards the practice side and cover implementing issues in nature-based solutions, including mainstreaming in project cycles and policies. This module also looks at the important issues of gender and social inclusion in NbS.
4.1. Session 6 A: Nature-based Solutions for Managing Landslide Risks
4.2. Session 6 B: Nature-based Solutions for Flood Risk Management in Urban Spaces
4.3. Session 7: Mainstreaming Nature-based Solutions in policies and planning processes
4.4. Session 8: Gender and social integration in implementing nature-based solutions

5. Module 5: Making a Business Case for Nature-based Solutions (Face-to-Face)

This module will cover public and private financing alternatives for nature-based solutions. It will also cover the fundamentals of the valuation of nature-based solutions.
5.1. Session 9: Financing nature-based solutions
5.2. Session 10: Valuation of Nature-based Solutions: Concepts. Issues and Challenges

$950 (without accommodation)
$1,200 [with accommodation (4 nights)]

Fees are inclusive of course materials (soft copy), cost of instructions and course certificate. For face-to-face training, fee is inclusive of morning and afternoon snacks and lunch during the course.

Interested individuals and organizations can register online at www.adpc.net/apply.

For more information about the course, you may also contact Apibarl Bunchongraksa at apibarl@adpc.net and telephone numbers +66 22980681 to 92 ext. 132.