Nature-based solutions (NbS) present a promising approach for protecting biodiversity while meeting ambitious climate targets, but there is growing international concern that they are sometimes linked to significant justice and equity concerns. Current reporting practices often require only superficial descriptions of how projects approach justice and equity issues, which are challenging to verify and lack consistency and transparency. As a result, some projects fail to address critical justice issues, leading to a wide range of undesirable outcomes on communities.
Miranda Lam has lead an effort from 4C (preprint here) to evaluate the justice and equity impacts of NbS projects in tropical and/or developing regions, by means of a semi-quantitative assessment of NbS projects based on their justice and equity claims and the weight of evidence provided. This is one of the six "pillars" of assessment that 4C has been developing: the others being additionality, leakage, permanence, biodiversity and livelihood impacts. This preprint on a justice framework is a first draft for feedback from the wider community, so please do share your thoughts with us once you read the preprint.