Nature Can Be a Solution to Climate Adaptation

We tend to think of nature and biodiversity as critical to absorbing carbon dioxide and mitigating climate change—and it is. But nature is equally critical to adaptation. It builds resilience to climate shocks. Trees and shrubs stabilize soil and hold water on their leaves. Forests limit water’s spread, instead of letting it soak into the ground and percolate out slowly. We've destroyed far too many of these natural ecosystems, often in the most critical places along rivers, streams, and coastlines. The challenge now is bringing them back. 

Nature-based climate solutions, in other words, come in many forms. 

Preserving forests in places like the Congo Basin or the Amazon Rainforest, rather than razing old growth for farmland, cools the landscape and slows the rise of greenhouse gas emissions. Adding pocket parks and trees to dense urban “heat islands” reduces temperatures pushed up by buildings and heat-absorbing blacktop. In Medellin, Colombia, for example, simply planting 215 native species along roadways and creating shady bike lanes and walkways reduced the city’s temperature up to 4 degrees Celsius in some areas. 

But consider, too, what I witnessed in Haiti. I worked there after Hurricanes Gustav and Hanna displaced more than 14,000 families. Those storms were so destructive in part because the country had lost most of its native forest. Without trees, nothing was there to slow the torrential rains from rushing down barren slopes into dry riverbeds, which rapidly overflowed. 

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has since helped lower flood risks by employing natural solutions. Workers helped replant millions of trees, mostly fruit trees, which provide income. That discourages Haitians from cutting them down. Shrubs were also planted along riverbanks, reducing erosion. 

Abt Global does similar work all around the globe. We’ve helped the U.S. Department of Interior evaluate how 167 green infrastructure projects improved coastal resilience to sea-level rise, storm surge, and wave erosion across a dozen states and the District of Columbia. In the Pacific Northwest, we helped Native American tribes document habitat damage and develop restoration plans. 

Our TSPi subsidiary created technology that lets the U.S. Department of Agriculture manage conservation grants for farmers. Work by that same subsidiary now helps the National Marine Fisheries Service conduct Endangered Species Act consultations.

The bottom line: There is no more hiding from climate change. Bigger storms, floods, and wildfires are here, as are extreme heat, more severe drought, and all manner of additional risks, from food insecurity to greater exposure to pathogens. Climate impacts increasingly appear all around us. We, of course, need to act faster, but that doesn’t mean we should reflexively turn to feats of engineering as our only means of adapting. We need to train ourselves also to embrace the tools nature has provided.

It’s a lesson Painesville, for one, is heeding.

The young man and his mother who stayed with my family never did move back to their old home. Instead, the city, using state and federal grants, bought up the property and ripped out it and more than 40 other condo units. Officials installed more than 11,000 plants, spruced up wetland areas and built a mile-long walkway. They turned that place into a park and interpretive trail complete with educational signs highlighting stream ecology and floodplain management.

Major flooding will no doubt return to Painesville someday. But rather than pose a direct threat to residents, the 16-acre stretch now home to the Grand River Conservation Area will be there to help slow or curtail rising waters.

And who knows? It may even save lives.