Co-creating minimum requirements for Nature-Based Solutions in EU marine and coastal environments

With climate change and biodiversity loss reaching critical levels nature-Based Solutions (NbS) have emerged as powerful tools to foster sustainable development and addressing social, economic and environmental challenges simultaneously, by delivering various ecosystem services. However, despite their potential, uncertainties regarding their scope, effectiveness, and costs have likely hindered widespread adoption. In  marine and coastal ecosystems, implementation of NbS presents additional complexities due to diverse stakeholder perceptions, varying interpretations of the concept, and the potential for conflicts with existing policies. This is further enhanced by a lack of detailed implementation standards, which leaves NbS vulnerable to misuse and greenwashing allegations. To address these challenges, the Horizon project TRANSEATION aims to develop environmental minimum requirements for marine and coastal NbS. These requirements will provide much-needed clarity and guidance to stakeholders involved in NbS implementation from consultancies to investors.

To advance this work, this workshop invites participants to help identify key risks in the implementation of NbS, and the options for mitigating them, to reduce the risk of greenwashing and guide deployment. The workshop will set the scene by providing the first insights from previous expert workshops, interviews, and literature reviews and further dive into potential requirements, documentation needs and how to decide if a proposed NbS is actually and NbS. The results of the workshop will feed directly into several EU Mission Ocean projects, and support the drafting of future blue infrastructure building rating systems for marine and coastal structures to help developers contributing to ecosystem-based management of our oceans.