Approaches integrating environmental management practices have been gaining importance in recent years. Sustainable Land Management (SLM), Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA), Ecosystem-based disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR) and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are widely applied approaches that tackle certain drivers of challenges such as food insecurity, water scarcity, decline in biodiversity and threats to livelihoods, while also considering both human well-being and ecosystem functions and services. Better understanding the similarities, differences and relationships between these approaches helps to improve efficiency in implementation and leverage synergies. By shedding more light on where these approaches align, investments in land-based solutions in response to different types of environmental challenges can be more effectively designed to achieve multiple targets. In response to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) decision 19/COP.14 paragraph 4, the main objective of this report is to understand and elaborate upon the characteristics of SLM, EbA, Eco-DRR and NbS. The report begins with an overview of the historical backgrounds and origins of SLM, EbA, Eco-DRR and NbS. Despite differences in their specific goals and targeted benefits, all approaches aim for the support of biodiversity, land-based ecosystems and ecosystem services and functions, and employ measures to conserve, restore and sustainably use land to support ecosystem services and functions, including SLM technologies. Furthermore, irrespective of their different goals, the projects developed under any approach can generate comparable co-benefits, especially due to their support of biodiversity. The capacity for all these approaches to deliver multiple co-benefits means that projects of each approach can directly contribute to implementing the specific goals of the other approaches as well. Thus, multiple global and national targets, frameworks, strategies and conventions which call for the implementation of one or more of these approaches, can benefit from this report by avoiding duplication and reducing the overall investments necessary to achieve the set targets and goals. This is critical for achieving the ambitious Agenda 2030, including voluntary land degradation neutrality (LDN) targets and climate action under the Paris Agreement. It will also be the case for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework currently under development. The added value that will come from optimizing the links among these approaches extends from national policymakers to the practitioners of SLM, EbA and Eco-DRR projects, which all share the ultimate goal of sustainable development. To capture the coherence and alignment among these approaches, their similarities and differences have been summarized in a conceptual framework. The framework has been designed to help practitioners understand the specific goals of each approach, and to link these to the relevant global and national targets, frameworks, strategies and conventions, which can support monitoring and evaluation as well as reporting processes. The synergies among these approaches are further illustrated based on three case studies in order to demonstrate opportunities for leveraging multiple co-benefits and targets at implementation level irrespective of the different objectives under each. The results of this assessment demonstrate that activities under one approach can be beneficial to achieve the specific goals of other approaches with little additional effort. It is essential for policymakers, project developers and practitioners to recognize that. This is key to the achievement of sustainable development.

In July 2021, the Rhine-Meuse region straddling Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands was affected by devastating floods that have led to the loss of more than 240 lives and damage worth billions of Euros. The event was closely watched by regional agencies that had to organize response and recovery, and also received noticeable global attention. Diverse sets of responses and reflections accumulated among researchers, local and regional governments, local and international media, development organizations, public offices and citizen groups, wherein links to climate change and gaps in our preparedness for unexpected, extreme events were a common element of the discourse. In response to the floods, and in recognition of the cross-border effects of climate change, the United Nations University institutes in Belgium (UNU-CRIS), Germany (UNU-EHS) and the Netherlands (UNU-MERIT) have launched the “UNU Climate Resilience Initiative” with the aim to share knowledge, shape policy and drive action – and ultimately shift the focus from risk to proactive adaptation, innovation and transformation. Within the context of this initiative, researchers from the three institutes have conducted research in the flood affected areas and organized the two-day “Flood Knowledge Summit 2022: From Risks to Resilience”, which took place from 7 to 8 July 2022 in Maastricht, the Netherlands. Complementing existing national initiatives and efforts in the three countries, the event aimed to connect different actors – including affected citizens, first responders, authorities, researchers and civil society – from the region, the European Union (EU) and the Global South to share experiences, engage in dialogue and facilitate learning regarding how to strengthen climate resilience for all. This summit served to map various efforts to understand the data, information, governance and knowledge gaps at national, subnational and regional levels in order to address growing risks of climate change, including how to adapt to not only climate-induced extreme events like floods but also other hazard events, and created a regional momentum to support multidimensional efforts towards building resilience. Drawing on our research and outcomes of the Flood Knowledge Summit 2022, the UNU Climate Resilience Initiative has identified five key areas in which further research and action is needed to tackle climate risks and facilitate pathways towards climate resilience.