Webinar Nature Based Solutions by EFARO – 4 February 2022, Online

Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) are frequently appearing in a broad spectrum of policies developed within the EU. Its role in marine policies and research programmes is however still limited. This is likely to change as NBS are adopted as key terminology in both biodiversity strategies and the EU taxonomy for sustainable financing. This will enhance the need for scientific advisory institutions to provide evidence-based advice on potential impacts of various combinations of marine NBS.

To facilitate a critical debate about the prospects and pitfalls related to the operationalization of marine NBS in an EU context, EFARO has set up a working group producing a paper providing an analysis of core definitions, potential categories of marine NBS and a suite of case studies. Coastal waters, shelf and open oceans present multiple options for testing new and scaling up known NBS, which could support both environmental restoration simultaneously with addressing multiple societal challenges. However, as the acceptance of NBS types will depend on ecosystem state and thus history, it will be a significant task to consistently communicate why some solutions ma count as a NBS in some areas, while not in others. The paper therefore raises a set of research priorities and policy advice aimed at ensuring the successful advice and deployment of marine NBS in support of multiple societal goals. It will be presented at this webinar.