Date:
November 9th 2017 to November 10th 2017
Climate change is already affecting and will increasingly affect natural resources, especially water resources and aquatic ecosystems. In many countries, the number and intensity of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, floods and droughts is increasing, and the sea level is rising, threatening territories, economic and social development as well as the environment.
In this context, there is a growing interest for a range of solutions inspired by nature, under different terminologies: generic terms like eco-engineering, support for ecosystem services or green infrastructure, specific examples of these like ecological rehabilitation, Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) or Natural Water Retention Measures (NWRM), etc.
These Nature-based Solutions are defined as “actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits” (IUCN, 2016). They are one of the options for societies to meet the mitigation and adaptation objectives of the Paris Agreement on Climate, which acknowledged the interlinkages between resilience of communities, livelihoods and ecosystems.
Nature-based Solutions are also fundamental to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG6 (Water), SDG13 (Climate Change), SDG14 (Oceans), SDG2 (Zero hunger) and SDG15 (Ecosystems).
This declaration recognizes and aligns with the orientations and recommendations of the COP21 “Paris Pact on water and adaptation to climate change in the basins of rivers, lakes and aquifers”, the Hawaii Resolution of the IUCN World Conserva- tion Congress in 2016, the 13th Conference of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Sendai Frame- work for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Sign the Declaration
