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Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Climate Change Adaptation and Wellbeing: Evidence and Opportunities From Kiribati, Samoa, and Vanuatu

journal contribution
posted on 2021-10-21, 03:12 authored by Gabriel L Kiddle, Tokintekai Bakineti, Anita Latai-Niusulu, Willy Missack, Maibritt Pedersen Zari, Rebecca Kiddle, Victoria Chanse, Paul Blaschke, David Loubser
Climate change and urbanisation in combination put great pressure on terrestrial and ocean ecosystems, vital for subsistence and wellbeing in both rural and urban areas of Pacific islands. Adaptation is urgently required. Nature-based solutions (NbS) offer great potential, with the region increasingly implementing NbS and linked approaches like ecosystem-based adaptation in response. This paper utilises three Pacific island nation case-studies, Kiribati, Samoa and Vanuatu, to review current NbS approaches to adapt and mitigate the converging resilience challenges of climate change and urbanisation. We look at associated government policies, current NbS experience, and offer insights into opportunities for future work with focus on urban areas. These three Pacific island case-studies showcase their rich cultural and biological diversity and, importantly, the role of traditional ecological knowledge in shaping localised, place-based, NbS for climate change adaptation and enhanced wellbeing. But gaps in knowledge, policy, and practice remain. There is great potential for a nature-based urban design agenda positioned within an urban ecosystems framework linked closely to Indigenous understandings of wellbeing.

Funding

Wellbeing through Nature-based Urban Design: Co-designing Climate Adaptations in Oceania

Royal Society of New Zealand

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History

Preferred citation

Kiddle, G. L., Bakineti, T., Latai-Niusulu, A., Missack, W., Pedersen Zari, M., Kiddle, R., Chanse, V., Blaschke, P. & Loubser, D. (2021). Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Climate Change Adaptation and Wellbeing: Evidence and Opportunities From Kiribati, Samoa, and Vanuatu. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 9, 723166-. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2021.723166

Journal title

Frontiers in Environmental Science

Volume

9

Publication date

2021-10-14

Pagination

723166

Publisher

Frontiers Media SA

Publication status

Published online

Online publication date

2021-10-14

ISSN

2296-665X

eISSN

2296-665X

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