NAbSA (Nature-based Solutions for Climate Adaptation: Monitoring & Impact Evaluation) is IUCN’s technical community of practice for translating inclusive, gender-responsive nature–climate action into practical adaptation and resilience solutions. NAbSA brings together technical knowledge, practical experience and partnerships to support better design, implementation and scaling of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for climate adaptation and resilience.
From Framework to Action
How NAbSA turns knowledge into practical nature–climate action
The six core principles
NAbSA revolves around six core principles.
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Informed by co-creation
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Focused on the nature–climate–people nexus
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Guided by environmental and social risk analysis
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Rights-based and gender-responsive
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Climate-proofed
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Aligned with policy
NAbSA is a living approach implemented through two phases. Phase 1 established the foundations: bridging and gathering knowledge, strengthening capacity and practical guidance around high-quality, inclusive and gender-responsive NbS for adaptation and resilience. Phase 2 – Nature4Resilience – builds on this foundation by developing an interactive diagnostic and decision-support explorer to help practitioners and decision-makers put the six NAbSA core principles into practice.
Building the NAbSA foundation
The first phase of NAbSA established the initiative as a technical community of practice hosted by IUCN and co-created with Global Affairs Canada’s Partnering for Climate and Nature-Positive communities.
Its mission was to accelerate climate resilience through inclusive, gender-responsive NbS that safeguard biodiversity, empower communities and strengthen adaptation and resilience outcomes.
Phase 1 focused on:
Capacity building and technical assistance
Strengthening knowledge and skills around NbS for adaptation.
Knowledge generation and sharing
Documenting experiences, lessons and good practices from projects and practitioners.
Dialogue and exchange
Connecting with other NbS networks and creating a strong community of practice via formal Task Forces.
Policy influence
Helping strengthen the role of NbS within adaptation planning and wider climate, people and nature agendas.
Practical guidance
Culminating in the NAbSA Operational Framework to support the design, implementation and monitoring of high-quality adaptation and resilience actions.
The foundation was informed by practical experience across 19 projects in 30 countries and 12 ecosystems, alongside a wider network of practitioners and partners.
The NAbSA Operational Framework
At the heart of Phase 1 is the NAbSA Operational Framework, which provides a practical approach for supporting the development of adaptation and resilience interventions that are inclusive, evidence-based and grounded in the relationship between nature, climate and people.
The framework guides users through an iterative feedback cycle, underpinned by the six core principles above.
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Understanding the context
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Assessing climate risks and vulnerabilities
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Identifying nature-climate actions
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Prioritising and selecting actions
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Monitoring, evaluation, and learning
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Implementing nature-climate actions
NAbSA Explorer
This new phase moves from framework and guidance towards practical decision support.
The centrepiece of Phase 2 is an accessible, interactive diagnostic and decision-support explorer. The explorer will help practitioners and decision-makers assess their context and vulnerabilities, identify and prioritise potential NbS for adaptation and resilience options, consider costs and expected co-benefits, select indicators as well as generate evidence for learning, investment and tracking.
The explorer will translate the Operational Framework into an operational tool that can support users throughout the NAbSA cycle — from understanding climate and ecosystem risks through to action selection, monitoring, financing and adaptive management.
The NAbSA Explorer and the Operational Framework that underpins it will be deployed to guide the implementation of Nature4Resilience, a new DANIDA-funded project in support of the ENACT Partnership, and will generate the data and analysis for the development of investment plans and project proposals for NbS for adaptation (NbSA) / Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) for the implementation, primarily, of countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).
Under Nature4Resilience, NAbSA will also contribute to improved performance towards nature-climate-people responsive outcomes across selected DANIDA-funded projects/programmes under the remit of the investment plans.
What will the explorer support?
Diagnose
Assess context, readiness, data gaps and enabling conditions.
Analyse risks
Explore climate hazards, ecosystem services, exposure, vulnerability and multiple risks, including differentiated impacts on women and marginalised groups.
Identify options
Connect users with relevant NbS/EbA actions based on ecosystems, hazards and livelihoods.
Prioritise
Compare options using criteria including cost-effectiveness, co-benefits, feasibility and safeguards.
Build evidence and scale
Support monitoring and evaluation, reporting alignment, learning, advocacy and investment.
From knowledge to better decisions
The NAbSA explorer is designed to help make NbS for adaptation and resilience more targeted, measurable and marketable.
For people, the explorer will help pinpoint communities and groups prone to climate risks and most reliant on ecosystems and the services these provide. By making all vulnerabilities more visible, NAbSA will support more targeted, inclusive and equitable adaptation and resilience measures.
For ecosystems, the explorer will help identify where protection, sustainable management and restoration can deliver multiple co-benefits across climate, environmental, socio-economic and cultural dimensions, strengthening ecosystem resilience while supporting livelihoods, well-being and long-term adaptation.
The explorer will also integrate the ENACT indicator framework, expanding its use to a larger audience interested in tracking their impact towards NbS global goals.
What happens next?
The second phase will combine explorer development, testing, technical assistance and peer learning. The explorer will be developed and tested with DANIDA-supported projects, IUCN teams, technical experts and selected country stakeholders, with lessons from testing used to refine the explorer, guidance and training materials.
Several DANIDA-supported country cases will pilot the NAbSA Operational Framework alongside the explorer, supported by targeted technical assistance and peer-learning exchanges.
Together, the two phases move NAbSA from building the knowledge base and foundational framework for high-quality adaptation and resilience to supporting practitioners and decision-makers in applying that knowledge to real-world decisions.