Workshop on aligning Ecosystem-Based Adaptation with Nature-Based Solutions

Participants of the workshop with Facilitators and Acting DG. (Photo Credit: SPREP/Savvy Vanuatu)

Acting DG Abraham Nasak. (Photo Credit: SPREP/Savvy Vanuatu)

The Minister of Climate Change and Energy, Honourable John Salong has called upon all government officials, private sector representatives, civil society organizations, and international partners to work together in implementing the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) and the Vehicle Emissions Standards projects.

This workshop was organized with the support of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and partner organisations to help participants better understand the connection between ecosystem-based adaptation and nature-based solutions.

In his address, Mr Nasak said ecosystem-based adaptation and ecosystem-based services are not new concepts.

He stated that communities have been using these adaptation practices for a long time.

“Our communities have known how to use nature to help them live with the challenges and uncertainties that life throws as them for millennia, including their responses to natural disasters.

“The challenges created by the impacts of climate change we faces as a nation a dn as communities also need responses that protect and sustainably use ecosystems and biodiversity.

“To address these challenges, ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) to climate change  was adopted into the multilateral Convention on Biological Diversity in 2010 and this approach has increasingly been implemented, including in Vanuatu,” the Acting Director General stated.

He continued that by definition, nature-based solutions is an umbrella-term for conservation, restoration and sustainable use of nature to address societal challenges

Ecosystem-based adaptation is a subset of nature-based solutions that looks at the challenge of climate adaptation, Mr Nasak said.

“Ecosystem-based adaptation involves conservation, sustainable management, and restoration of ecosystems as part of an overall strategy to reduce vulnerability and increase the resilience of people and ecosystems to the effects of climate change.

“The concept of nature-based solutions builds on ecosystem-based adaptation and expands the concept.

“We need to ensure that all our society look to nature to help us adapt to our planetary crises.

“This includes, not just environmentalists, but also economists, developers, farmers, and policy makers across the board,” the Acting DG of the Ministry of Climate Change said.