Economic value case scenarios and estimates of Nature based Solutions
Over the recent decades, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) has gained momentum as a preferred approach aimed at addressing the environmental and societal challenges. NbS have been suggested to serve a number of purposes; cross-cutting through both the addressing the twin climate and biodiversity crises as well as a focus on sustainable human livelihoods. With an increasing focus on recovery into a green economy in the post-covid World, Nature based Solutions are set to take on a high center of focus to address the ever-increasing societal challenges; inclusive of water and food security, human health, disaster risk reduction, climate change among others and most significantly contribute towards the socio-economic well-being of societies.
The economic potential of Nature based Solutions is projected to have highly substantial benefits basing on the measure and value of ecosystem services they provide. The economic values and benefits estimated for the services afforded by Nature based Solutions may often vary greatly, depending on the nature of the services, the systems providing them, and the characteristics of the communities benefiting from them, as well as the methods employed in their value estimation, while they do not provide comprehensive estimates of the co-benefits that might arise from the NbS for climate mitigation they consider.
For instance Griscom, et al. (2017), report wastewater treatment values of between 785 and 34,700 USD per hectare. Costanza et al. (2008) report coastal storm protection values on the East Coast of the United States ranging between 250 and 51,000 USD per hectare per year, Huxham et al. (2015) cite figures ranging from hundreds to ten thousand or more USD for coastal protection in Southeast Asia and Africa.
These among various cases are reflective of the unexploited economic potentials that could be derived from Nature based Solutions. With Nature based Solutions taking on stands in various policy spaces across the globe, governments and society actors should embark on Nature based Solutions in practice so as to yield the desired results for a green recovery.
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