"Nature-based initiatives, such as planting mangroves and revitalizing wetlands, have proven effective in making communities more resilient to climate change. But international funding has shortchanged such solutions in favor of more costly and less efficient engineering projects."
"On the low-lying northern shore of the Indonesian island of Java, the sea has invaded a kilometer inland in places in recent years, engulfing whole communities and vast expanses of rice paddy. But villagers are fighting back against further advances by erecting brushwood barriers in the mud to help the natural regeneration of mangroves.
This innovative nature-based response to rising sea levels and worsening storms, sponsored by the Indonesian government and the Dutch-based environmental group Wetlands International, could be scaled up across Asia. Within a decade it could be helping at least 10 million people in similar situations to protect and restore their denuded coastlines — all at a fraction of the cost of sea walls, says Jane Madgwick, CEO of Wetlands International.
But it can do that only if local projects are developed and the financing secured. And so far, she says, progress has been slow. Lives, livelihoods, and coastlines are being lost as a result.
And so it goes."
Fred Pearce reports for Yale Environment 360 April 18, 2022.
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