Nature4Climate launches full version of its climate action platform naturebase

Today, on World Conservation Day, the Nature4Climate Coalition is launching the full version of its “naturetech” solution naturebase. The platform, a collaboration of over 50 scientists from around the world, is designed to help unlock the potential of nature and ensure efforts to protect, manage and restore it are optimized worldwide. July 28th is a date to remind us of the importance of protecting the planet’s natural resources and ecosystems, a day which calls for more action to safeguard the environment and promote a healthier planet for all. 

Naturebase is a free, scientific data platform, and the largest database of its kind, designed to inform decision-making on climate and nature everywhere on the planet. With it, government officials and other users can easily navigate through the data to find out which natural climate solutions (NCS) could be the most impactful in their country, region or area, understanding how much potential each solution has to mitigate millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year (MtCO2e/yr), as well as the impacts they can have on ecosystem services. It also includes key information on enabling policies for implementing such solutions, case studies and relevant guidance on conducting high-quality, high-integrity natural climate solutions.

Transparent data for better planning 

With naturebase, users have access to authoritative data, based on the most recently developed peer-reviewed science, to inform natural climate solutions (NCS) projects. Specifically, the platform provides a bridge between global science and local implementation to protect, manage and restore all types of croplands, forests, grasslands, wetlands, shrublands and savannas – 20 different pathways in total. Specific pathways, for example, are “climate-smart forestry” under forests, or “cropland-based agroforestry” under croplands.

To help break down the science, nature-based solutions (NbS) refer to actions that address societal challenges such as climate change and disaster risk by protecting, sustainably managing, and restoring natural or modified ecosystems. NCS is a subset of NbS, and is used to describe a more focused definition of actions to protect, better manage and restore nature to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and store carbon.

The naturebase platform also helps guide users to specific pathways in customizable regions that have the highest carbon mitigation impact while protecting biodiversity and also pointing toward high-integrity actions that account for livelihoods and human rights. Users can identify co-benefits for people and biodiversity, and find relevant policies and case studies to inform their actions after seeing a region’s potential.

A key resource for updating NDCs

Right now, governments and policymakers across the world are working on updating their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the backbone of action planning to achieve the Paris Agreement goals. Naturebase can be a useful resource to government officials and policy leads looking to develop more comprehensive nature and climate plans to achieve 2030 goals. 

A step-by-step guide to using the tool for governments

• Real-world applications: 
• • Naturebase offers government officials the ability to geographically assess their land-based emissions reduction potential of custom areas, as well as national land-use and biodiversity priorities, to support their country’s climate action plans or NDCs, and ecosystem services and biodiversity actions.
  • Government officials can compare the total potential of NCS, provided by naturebase, against current commitments and plans, and identify gaps for potential, to raise ambition and support the second round of NDC submissions in early 2025 for implementation by 2035.
• Case studies and available policies can help governments identify potential avenues for targeting support in areas of high NCS opportunity.

How can users navigate the tool: 

• Search, draw, upload: pinpoint specific areas in a country to the kilometre, for a fully customizable experience for accessing the data.
• Find examples: find case studies and scientific articles associated with a specific pathway or country and see what success looks like for similar nature projects and the co-benefits they unlock. For example, the Amazon Agroforestry and Restoration Accelerator in Brazil – which supports “Avoided Forest Conversion” and “Cropland-Based Agroforestry” pathways under Forests and Croplands –  helps scale agroforestry adoption and restoring forests among eligible smallholder farmers. Another example, Protecting and Restoring Mangrove Ecosystems through Shrimp-Carbon Aquaculture in Indonesia – which supports the “Coastal Wetlands Restoration” and “Avoided Coastal Wetland Conversion” pathways under “Wetlands” – improves local livelihoods and increases coverage of mangroves and carbon stocks. 
• Create and compare: create a user profile, providing personalized datasets saved for whenever they are needed. Use the profile to compare the benefits of different pathways and different areas, giving you greater insights for your planning. For example, peatland restoration will have more or less benefits in specific areas.
• Data discovery and policies: discover carbon sequestration potential data (climate benefits), ecosystem services and biodiversity data (co-benefits), and national policies related to NCS (governance), across different pathways and in different countries, to find a wide range of information on benefits for both people and planet. 
• Access additional tools: find useful and relevant additional research, data and tools such as the Natural Climate Solution Human Rights Toolset and the International REDD+ Standards Tool to help with the financing and implementation of NCS in the resource library.
• User guides: users can also take a tour around naturebase to help understand how to use it and visit the “how to” section. 
• Generate reports: generate NCS analysis reports that can be shared to demonstrate how and where to realize NCS potential to reduce land-based emissions and other benefits.  

Trust in the tool:

• The tool is regularly updated, with minor updates ongoing and major updates to data and functionality on an annual basis. 
• The climate benefit estimates are assigned a confidence category of high, moderate, low or very low, reflecting the uncertainties associated with the activity area and sequestration rate values, and following Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidance. More information can be found on this in the FAQs.

To conclude

Now in its full launch, the tool can support the day-to-day requirements of government officials involved in decision-making and policy formulation around climate change mitigation, by quantifying NCS potential and offering scientifically-derived information to assist countries in meeting their NDCs under the Paris Agreement. In addition to government users, naturebase is also designed for businesses, practitioners and technical experts, project managers, Indigenous peoples and local communities, and funders to help inform decision-making and project identification and to meet emissions goals while safeguarding community and biodiversity integrity. The data can also be used by journalists for research to support reporting on specific countries and pathways. 

Naturebase provides a comprehensive, holistic resource for data, information, and resources to promote the widespread adoption of NCS solutions for climate mitigation on a global scale. As naturebase evolves, The Nature Conservancy and its partners will continue to integrate adaptation strategies and ecosystem benefits, along with robust monitoring and evaluation systems, enhancing the implementation and outcomes of NCS projects. If you use the tool, please share your experience of how you used it in your decision-making and, for example, how you used it to enhance NDCs in your country, here.