Today a new guidebook is launched for monitoring the outcomes and impacts of nature-based solutions to climate change adaptation. This launch comes on Earth Day (22nd April), which is focused on climate action.

The Guidebook for Monitoring and Evaluating Ecosystem-based Adaptation Interventions is a joint publication by the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and Friends of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (FEBA) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 

This is a practical guide for planners and practitioners to better understand the outcomes and impacts of on-the-ground projects that work with and enhance nature to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on people (or ‘Ecosystem-based Adaptation’ (EbA)). 

We are facing a global nature crisis. The climate is rapidly changing, so there is a world-wide need for people to adapt to the negative effects of such changes. EbA interventions are being implemented across the globe, but as with all adaptation responses, there remain uncertainties about their effectiveness and long-term impacts.  

That’s why understanding the outcomes of the interventions put in place and learning from good practice is more important now than ever. The launch of this Guidebook is timely as the international conservation community looks to nature-based solutions to climate change adaption ahead of the launch of the UN Decade on Restoration and the UN Decade of Action on the Sustainable Development Goals next year.

The Guidebook describes key considerations and components for each step of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of EbA projects and points to additional tools and methodologies that can be used in specific circumstances.

The Guidebook can support the early stages of designing an EbA intervention to help clarify the logic underlying the measures, including the intended pathway of change. It can also be used if an intervention has already begun to help make improvements to the project logical framework and M&E systems, if these exist, or to develop them if they are not yet in place. 

The Guidebook was funded by the Global Project Mainstreaming EbA, which is implemented by GIZ on behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature, Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). The project is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). BMU supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag. 

The Guidebook can be accessed here.