Rethinking nature-based solutions research in Bangladesh

Over the last few years, we have been widely talking about Nature-based Solutions, also known as NbS in short. These conversations, however, have been sidelined lately due to political priorities of Bangladesh. I would leave the politics of NbS for another day and focus today on rejuvenating our understanding of NbS for Bangladesh.

NbS is indeed an environmental matter; after all, through NbS, we find solutions to our societal problems within nature, biodiversity, and ecosystems. That's why planting and raising a combination of mangrove species along our coastline to create a green defence system against cyclones is an NbS intervention. 

Although planting trees in the drier parts of Rangpur, restoring Dhaka's canals, and managing haor wetlands of greater Sylhet and Mymensingh are NbS, these are not enough to take NbS conversation forward in Bangladesh. We need to think of the science of NbS. 

To me, the science of NbS for Bangladesh is to examine the 'solution' itself — how it works, why it works, or how to improve it when it fails. To explore what our NbS scientists are doing, I recently searched on Google Scholar. 

I found the following types of research: many pieces of research on NbS are about its effectiveness based on costs, outputs, impacts, and comparative advantages over other non-NbS. The second group of research is on policy, planning, and broader implications. The third major research category focuses on implementation, sustainability, and scaling up of NbS.

Since effectiveness is a major concern of NbS, let me share with you a study I was involved in. This research was led by the University of Oxford with ICCCAD at the Independent University, Bangladesh and the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB). We analysed 56 NbS-related research from Bangladesh and found that 91% of the research confirmed positive impacts of NbS. 

In the agriculture sector in particular, NbS reduced 75% cultivation cost, gave a maximum 28% more production, and reduced irrigation needs by 11-33%. We also looked into four community development projects that implemented lots of NbS. Of those, the Tanguar Haor management project of Bangladesh government, with IUCN, showed effectiveness of swamp forest restoration with hijal and koroch trees, of biodiversity conservation areas, of protection of dwindling fisheries, and of sustainable harvesting and benefit sharing of fish catch.

The boundary of NbS is another issue to look into in NbS science. Here, the least we must do is to use an agreed definition of NbS. I often talk with young NbS researchers from Bangladesh and abroad who use IUCN, EU or UN's definition of NbS. 

I personally think that the UN's definition should be considered, which is essentially based on IUCN's one. The UN's definition reads, NbS are 'Actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use, and manage natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems, which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services and resilience and biodiversity benefits.'

I do not know if you have noticed, but to me, the unique aspect of NbS is considering both 'human' and 'biodiversity' benefits. No other environmental solutions talk about both in an equal manner. But a challenge for NbS is measuring and tracking these two benefits. 

In the development sector, we are very good at measuring changes in people, society and economy. But measuring changes in biodiversity needs scientific and technical expertise— knowledge on species and ecosystem processes. How many of Bangladesh's NGOs and international NGOs have biologists or environmental scientists on their teams?

Again, when we think of conducting research on NbS, who should be given the responsibility? Should the development practitioners invite and collaborate with academics for that? Or should they build their in-house capacity to do NbS research? 

While hardcore scientific research should lie with academia, I strongly believe our NGOs should have internal capacity to synthesise large datasets on NbS, conduct thorough reviews of scientific literature on NbS, and be able to confirm that their NbS projects are really NbS projects. Building capacities on these issues should be a priority of Bangladesh's NGOs.

Indeed, the term 'Nature-based Solutions' is relatively new. But NbS science can show us that we have been using other terms related to NbS for decades: Protection and restoration of ecosystems, sustainable management of natural resources, or creation of new ecosystems. 

We also widely use the technical approaches, such as Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA), co-management of protected areas with local stakeholders, and Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM). 

In Bangladesh, we are so advanced on these issues that we mainstreamed philosophies and values of NbS in our ecologically critical area management rules of 2016, biodiversity act of 2017, protected area management rules of 2017, delta plan of 2018, climate prosperity plan for 2022-2041, and national adaptation plan (NAP) for 2023-2050. 

If we do not appreciate these variations and developments that we have already achieved through NbS science, we may wrongly undermine NbS as a completely new concept. Our priority should now be to align our rich heritage of community-based approaches with useful NbS standards and protocols to make our development efforts effective.

Finally, as happens in many sectors, our sectoral policies and science of that sector 'work in silos'—a word that has a negative connotation in development discourses. That's why we often suggest 'breaking the silos' as a way to facilitate collaboration. 

But if we imagine two vertical physical silos standing side by side, we will realise that an alternative to breaking the silos is 'connecting the silos' at different levels. In this way, we will have two silos turned into a ladder to climb towards resilience and prosperity. The science of NbS can do that.

Photo: Haseeb Md Irfanullah/TBS Illustration

Dr Haseeb Md Irfanullah is an independent consultant working on environment, climate change, and research system; a visiting research fellow at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB). Email: hmirfanullah@outlook.com

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.