Can we make nature-based solutions work for climate, nature and people in the Mekong Region?

The Mekong Region faces many complex challenges ranging from water and food insecurity to extreme vulnerability to climate impacts. Rapid development has intensified the conflict between economic development and ecological needs to ensure long-term sustainability. To address these complex interconnected issues, nature-based solutions (NbS) offer a bankable option that ensures triple benefits for climate, nature and people.

NbS, according to the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), are defined as “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 wellbeing, ecosystem services and resilience and biodiversity benefits.”

Despite the global recognition of the potential of NbS, their implementation in the Mekong Region has faced many challenges, as described below.

NbS are not one size that fits all. Often, top-down implementation overlooks local contexts and negatively impacts local and indigenous communities.

Governments in the region continue to be biased towards traditional “grey” infrastructure^1 approaches over NbS due to the lack of evidence on its cost-effectiveness and flawed designs. Moreover, NbS projects have struggled to mobilize large-scale funding, making it difficult to show the business case as cost-effective solutions over traditional grey solutions.

Policy gaps also exist. Although there is a global and sometimes regional intent for upscaling NbS, this intent does not transfer into commitments at national and sectoral policies and directives. And where these national policies exist for some countries, implementation is weak or limited.

Scaling and mainstreaming NbS, especially within the Mekong Region, requires recognizing a suite of solutions while ensuring these solutions are just, inclusive, and effective.

1. Boosting scalability through technical innovation

Scaling NbS solutions requires preserving what already exists while retrofitting and building new solutions through a multidisciplinary approach combining policy, planning, design, and engineering. There is also a need to improve monitoring and evaluation frameworks to assess the effectiveness and impact of NbS beyond a project’s lifespan and ensure the systems are functional under various management priorities and climate change scenarios. NbS projects need to produce innovative cost-benefit analysis methods that are sensitive to the full range of benefits NbS provides.

2. Promoting inclusive co-creation

Historically, NbS projects have been led by government stakeholders as top-down solutions that often exclude marginalized local voices. Effective NbS must be co-designed in close collaboration with local communities, ensuring recognition of multiple knowledge forms. An approach that brings together voices of communities,  agencies, and government, managing conflicts and allowing actors’ voices to be a part of the solution.

Dr Anjali Mohan, an urban planner from Integrated Design in India, shared a case of a community wells restoration project in Central India, where she emphasized that the technological aspect is often a small piece of the puzzle, but the maintenance of solutions for the community wells was more critical. She also highlighted that the project ensured its design and implementation were based on continuous community feedback on their needs and how they will use those wells.

3. Strengthening policy and governance

The current policy framework on NbS in the Mekong Region is fragmented. Vietnam is at the forefront, providing clear guidance and targets for NbS inclusion through Vietnam’s Resolution 120. Policy coherence is needed to avoid siloed and contradictory department mandates and the lack of national vision.

This policy framework should emphasize strengthening the evidence base to encourage NbS replication to influence decision-making, promote cross-sectoral collaboration, and align national directives with global climate targets and sustainability goals.