Circular Solutions: Refining IUCN’s NbS Societal Challenge Categories

Extract (first section):

Humankind has used nature to address societal challenges for as long as complex society has existed—from managing floods by means of wetland preservation to controlling pests through crop diversity. Our reliance on nature continues today, even as technological innovation enables increasingly sophisticated engineered solutions. Remarkably, it was only in the late 2000s that the use of nature to address societal challenges gained a unifying name: nature-based solutions (NbS; World Bank 2008, IUCN 2016). It took another few years before it entered the peer-reviewed literature (Nesshöver et al. 2017, Raymond et al. 2017) and a few more before its popularity truly took off (Chausson et al. 2020, Seddon et al. 2020). The term built on and broadened the earlier and more specific concept of ecosystem-based adaptation (CBD 2009, IUCN 2016). Its establishment has been a success, judging by the growing number of governments, organizations, and corporations now using the term and projects implemented under its banner.