Thematic area
The conservation, rehabilitation, and management of biodiversity and ecosystems increases resilience to climate change and has the potential to provide low-cost and long-term solutions to protect lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure, while advancing the achievement of multiple Sustainable Development Goals. UNDP supports countries to integrate conservation and targeted restoration of natural ecosystems and degraded landscapes – such as mangrove forests, wetlands, and catchment forests – into an overarching strategy for ecosystem-based adaptation that provides protection against climate change threats, either as part of a hybrid adaptation strategy or as standalone measures. The main areas of work include enhanced management to safeguard ecosystem services, restoration of coastal wetlands to protect communities against storms, slope stabilization through agroforestry and natural forest regeneration, halting or reversing land degradation and desertification, promoting sustainable productive landscapes, and improving water resources management, as well as catalyzing finance from the private sector for ecosystem-based approaches in order to build socio-ecological resilience. Ecosystem-based adaptation is included within countries’ National Adaptation Plans, and cuts across multiple sectors with relevance for food and water security, among other societal needs.
Stories
Under a project supported by the Green Climate Fund and UNDP, Uganda is revitalizing its fragile wetland ecosystems, restoring degraded wetlands and empowering local communities with alternative livelihood and economic opportunities.
In the fight for a climate-resilient and prosperous future, nature and youth are among our most powerful assets.
With financing from the Global Environment Facility and backing from UNDP, Bhutan is building resilience for its people, forests, and wildlife. The partnership has reaped real-world benefits for tens of thousands of Bhutanese, including in the most remote mountain communities.
Partnerships
BIOFIN was initiated ten years ago at the 11th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP11), by UNDP and the European Commission, in response to the urgent global need to divert more finance from all possible sources towards global and national biodiversity goals. Now present in 40 countries, BIOFIN is working with governments, civil-society, vulnerable communities, and the private sector to catalyze investments in nature. Investments that create jobs and opportunities for communities reeling from the impacts of COVID-19.
Since 2000, UNDP's global biodiversity program, with financing from the Global Environment Facility and other sources, has been successful in helping to strengthen more than 3,000 protected areas covering more than 680 million hectares including marine, terrestrial, and indigenous and community-conserved areas; and undertaking interventions in production sectors and development planning, covering more than 250 million hectares of production landscapes and seascapes.
Resources
This document, “Nature for Climate Action” is one of a series of “Nature for Development” Action Kits, as part of UNDP’s Nature Pledge. This series includes “Nature for Water Security,” “Nature for Climate Action,” “Nature for Food Security,” “Nature for Prosperity,” “Nature for Disaster Reduction,” “Nature for Peace,” and “Nature for Gender Equality.”
