Perspective series

Issue No.38: Rethinking Nature: A Pathway towards Sustainable Development?

15 September 2020

by Tasfia Tasnim and Haseeb Md. Irfanullah

Nature and people are closely interconnected but our current approaches and actions to speed up economic growth are harming nature. Rapid industrialization, unplanned urbanization, and excessive resource utilization are rapidly changing the quality of our ecosystems and, of course, changing our climate. To ensure sustainable, healthy societies we need to learn from nature and incorporate it when solving our development and societal challenges. Nature based Solutions is an umbrella concept  ranging from restoring a degraded forest to protecting a wetland to building green infrastructures for resolving waterlogging in our cities. In recent years, nature and NbS are gathering momentum in global climate policy discourses and conservation-related dialogues.