Action 6
Increase opportunities for deployment of nature-based solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change
ROADMAP PROGRESS
The 2025 GARI, drawing on the IUCN ADAPT and ADAPT 2.0 work, reports that integration of nature-based solutions (NbS) into domestic policy and project design across the WB6 remains at an early stage, with existing initiatives often not fully aligned with the IUCN Global Standard for NbS, and lacking systematic assessment of impacts and trade-offs.
NbS are recognised as a priority in the WB6 Climate Adaptation Roadmap and as one of three cross-cutting priorities for long-term climate resilience. Advancing them will require embedding NbS definitions and requirements in domestic legislation, spatial planning and investment appraisal, adopting common terminology and assessment methodologies. It will also require sustained financing, including the regional NbS fund foreseen under IUCN ADAPT 2.0 and support for the Western Balkans Forest Landscape Restoration Plan.
Source: IUCN ADAPT and ADAPT 2.0 project reports. Data reproduced in Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) (2025) Report on the Implementation of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans Action Plan (GARI 2025), Section 2.1, Action 6.
Note: Action 6 of the original Green Agenda Action Plan (2021–2030), which calls for increasing opportunities for deployment of nature-based solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change, is not retained as a standalone action in the Revised Action Plan (2025–2030).
Its objectives are reflected across Action 1 and Action 2 of the Revised Plan under the Decarbonisation and Climate Resilience pillar, through strengthened climate governance and implementation frameworks, and under Action 51 within the Biodiversity pillar, where ecosystem restoration and biodiversity strategies provide the policy basis for scaling nature-based solutions.