Prof Nathalie Seddon & Prof Cameron Hepburn in conversation: 'Evaluating and investing in Nature-based Solutions'

17 June 2021

Portrait of Professor Nathalie Seddon

with Professor Nathalie Seddon
 Professor of Biodiversity

Nathalie Seddon is Professor of Biodiversity in the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford. She has broad interests in understanding the origins and maintenance of biodiversity and its relationship with global change. Nathalie trained as a...

Portrait of Professor Cameron Hepburn

with Professor Cameron Hepburn
 Battcock Professor of Environmental Economics

Cameron Hepburn is co-Director of the Economics of Sustainability Programme, based at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School. He is the Battcock Professor of Environmental Economics at the Smith School of Enterprise and t...

Nature-based solutions (NbS) can contribute to the fight against climate change up to the end of our century.

But the world must invest now in nature-based solutions that are ecologically sound, socially equitable, and designed to deliver multiple benefits to society over a century or more. Properly managed, the protection, restoration and sustainable management of our working lands could benefit many generations to come.

While solutions such as community-led restoration and protection of mangroves, kelp forests, wetlands, grasslands and forests, bringing trees into working lands and nature into cities can bring multiple benefits from storing carbon and protecting us from extreme events, to supporting biodiversity and providing jobs and livelihoods, how can we engage governments, businesses and local communities in these solutions to ensure their success?

The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review states that relative to other interventions, Nature-based solutions have the potential to be cost-effective and provide multiple benefits beyond climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction. So how can these economic evaluations for each solution be derived?

Join Professor Nathalie Seddon, Director of the Nature-based Solutions Initiative & Professor Cameron Hepburn, Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, as they discuss the need for increased investment combined with rigorous evaluation of activities undertaken, using metrics which consider the complex, long-term benefits that NbS provide.