Summary: Urban land degradation threatens ecosystems, economies, and human well-being, especially in the Global South. Nature-based Solutions (NbS) like urban forestry, food parks, and biodiversity corridors can restore productivity, enhance resilience, and create socio-economic benefits. With awareness, governance, and investment, NbS can transform cities into sustainable, livable, climate-resilient spaces.
Stuck in rush hour traffic within the towering concrete jungle of Bengaluru, Delhi or Mumbai, it’s hard to imagine a place for nature in our cities. But what if there was a way to bring nature back into our cities, not just for aesthetics, but to actually make our cities healthier and more resilient?
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) is one such approach that’s slowly getting acceptance among urban planners. The concept refers to restoring or protecting land and ecosystems while addressing societal and environmental challenges like climate change, natural disasters, pollution, water scarcity and more. So, before we jump into how NbS can help respore land, let’s understand why we might be losing land’s productivity.
Plight of urban land in Global South
According to the UN, ‘land degradation’ refers to the reduction of the biological or economic productivity of the land. Due to growing urbanisation, chemical farming and a few other factors, around 40% of the Earth’s land is already degraded, as per the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.
Therefore, the theme for World Environment Day 2024 was “Our land. Our future.”, focusing on the importance of reversing land degradation and promoting restoration! As urbanisation gains pace in the developing world, the land that carries our cities continues to degrade, both in terms of soil quality and its ecological functioning and services.
Today, more than half of the global population lives in cities and in the coming decades, 95% of urban expansion is expected to occur in the developing world, commonly referred to as the Global South. High population density in these cities, as witnessed in India and Africa, exerts immense pressure on the land resources.
Degradation of land’s productivity is not just an environmental challenge, but also affects half of the world’s population directly. As per the UNCCD’s estimates, it threatens roughly half of global GDP (US$44 trillion). Even in India, 30% of the total geographical area is under degradation, as per the ISRO data.
In Indian cities, diversion of agricultural areas for infrastructure and residential development and fragmentation of natural habitats has led to extensive land degradation, shows research. The problem is even more acute in per-urban regions that continue to practice agriculture, mainly due to competing use cases of land for urban infrastructure and land for food.
Loss of productivity in both urban and peri-urban regions can have cascading impacts on the incomes, nutrional security, health and well being, climate action, and food prices. The relationship between urban areas and land degradation is highly complex, as cities directly cause degradation due to land use changes and are also strongly linked to multiple underlying drivers of degradation like migration, poverty, and failing institutions. Yet, urban land degradation remains understudied across the globe, let alone addressing it scientifically.
Can NbS help address these challenges?
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) has shown promise to address many of these challenges by restoring land and enhancing ecosystem services. But, what are they to begin with?
As per the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), solutions that leverage nature and the power of healthy ecosystems to protect people, optimise infrastructure and safeguard a stable and biodiverse future can be termed as NbS. In simple terms, they integrate and enhance nature in existing settlements for targetted outcomes that benefit societies, environment, and the economy.
NbS options like urban forestry, socio-ecological corridors, community food parks, etc., can help make urban land productive while also contributing multiple co-benefits like flood control, food provision, and mental wellbeing. Moreover, NbS can contribute to both climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, and could be a game-changer for India as we aim to fulfil our ambitious climate action commitments by 2030 under the Paris Agreement.
Multiple research studies have shown that deploying NbS is not just an environmental boon but also an economic opportunity. Most NbS practices benefit the local economy by creating jobs, increasing the real-estate value, supporting livelihoods, promoting equitable economic growth, fostering community engagement, attracting tourism, and reducing public health costs.
Simultaneous contributions to multiple socio-ecological and economic objectives is the superpower of NbS that can be a boon for developing countries like India as shown below:
Yamuna floodplain and Aravali Biodiversity Park in Delhi-NCR
The National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi has turned into a global poster-city for air pollution and urban heat impacts. While numerous environmental issues plague the region throughout the year, solutions are few and far in between. In 2002, the local authorities embarked on an ambitious goal of establishing a biodiversity park. Two decades later, today, the region hosts as many as seven such parks together spread over 1,000 hectares, including Yamuna and Aravalli.
This carefully-planned NbS approach has not just boosted biodiversity across NCR but also enhanced the land productivity. These parks have also contributed to flood control and introduced green havens for urban dwellers suffering from unimaginable levels of pollution and heat. The diversity in vegetation in the Yamuna Biodiversity Park area, for example, has multiplied 10 times within 18 years.
The road ahead
Urban land restoration through NbS is possible, effective and can make our cities more sustainable and livable. Globally, the push for NbS is evident. The State of Finance for Nature report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) reveals that in 2022, around $200 billion was invested in nature-based solutions, higher than the investment towards targeted climate action.
The United Nations has declared the ongoing decade (2021-2030) as the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. For India, this decade is an opportune moment to leverage global momentum and integrate NbS into its development agenda as there has always been an economic trade-off when it comes to urban land. Implementing NbS solutions has been an uphill task in developing countries like India, where unplanned urbanisation often outpaces the implementation of planned and targeted approaches.
Despite proven co-benefits, one significant barrier for implementation is the lack of awareness and understanding of NbS among policymakers, urban planners, and the public. Often, urban development prioritises short-term economic gains over long-term sustainability, leading to major institutional, governance, and financing challenges. Implementing NbS requires coordinated efforts across various sectors and levels of government, which can be difficult to achieve in India’s complex administrative framework.
As urban lands degrade rapidly, the urgency to adopt sustainable and holistic solutions cannot be overstated. The priorities for urban development authorities and citizens should be to: a) integrate green infrastructure into urban planning; b) enhance public awareness about NbS; c) community engagement in implementing NbS; d) strengthen institutional frameworks for protection of urban green and blue spaces; and e) secure sustainable funding.
By overcoming challenges related to awareness, governance, and financing, India can potentially lead the way in integrating NbS into urban planning, to build resilient cities that are livable, sustainable and help us be in harmony with nature.
