July 2025
Our research project on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in conflict-affected coastal communities has been officially endorsed as a Decade Action by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. NbS offer significant potential to enhance resilience in communities facing overlapping challenges—such as restricted mobility, economic instability, and environmental degradation. Yet in conflict-affected settings, adaptation projects, including NbS, can also produce unintended social or ecological consequences if implemented without careful attention to local dynamics.
This Decade Action aims to support the responsible scaling of NbS in vulnerable regions, with an emphasis on conflict sensitivity, inclusion, and long-term sustainability.Our research project on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in conflict-affected coastal communities has been officially endorsed as a Decade Action by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. NbS offer significant potential to enhance resilience in communities facing overlapping challenges—such as restricted mobility, economic instability, and environmental degradation. Yet in conflict-affected settings, adaptation projects, including NbS, can also produce unintended social or ecological consequences if implemented without careful attention to local dynamics.
This Decade Action aims to support the responsible scaling of NbS in vulnerable regions, with an emphasis on conflict sensitivity, inclusion, and long-term sustainability.
Hosted by the Ocean Decade Programme on Sustainable Ocean Planning, led by UNESCO Ocean, the project is spearheaded by PhD candidate Luisa Bedoya Taborda. Her work explores how NbS can contribute to more equitable and conflict-sensitive adaptation in vulnerable coastal regions.
Learn more about the project here.
Social Dynamics and Environmental Change 