Project Overview
FairNature is an international research project developing approaches for scaling nature-based solutions (NbS) in ways that are not only effective, but also just and fair as part of transformative societal change. NbS are approaches that address both societal and environmental challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss and human well-being. While they have often shown promising results, scaling them across different contexts can raise questions of justice as costs and benefits are often distributed unequally among stakeholders. FairNature tackles these challenges to ensure that scaling NbS contributes positively to climate action, biodiversity protection and social equity. Addressing this problem will have a positive impact on climate change mitigation and improve biodiversity and human well-being.
Our consortium brings together six European universities and research institutes and works in collaboration with a diverse range of stakeholders in six case studies in Belgium, Denmark, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Spain. Partners include: Instituut Natuur- en Bosonderzoek (INBO, Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Belgium), HOGENT (Belgium), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Université Grenoble Alpes (France), Environmental Social Science Research Group (ESSRG, Hungary), Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM-VU, the Netherlands), Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB, Spain), and Ecologic Institute (Germany).
A key feature of FairNature’s approach is reflexive learning, where stakeholders and scientists collaborate in ‘reflexive labs’ within and across the six case studies. This helps us explore the justice implications of scaling NbS and evaluate existing practices – from their efficiency to their potential for fair application through scaling to new contexts over a wider geographical range.
In our research we consider multiple dimensions of scaling: scaling up (to higher policy levels), scaling down (reallocating necessary resources), scaling out (replicating over a wider special scale), scaling in (ensuring to have the institutional infrastructure in place), and scaling deep (changing norms, beliefs, values, and practices). Our understanding of justice is equally multi-dimensional, covering procedural justice (fairness in the decision-making process), distributive justice (fairness in distribution of resources), and recognition justice (acknowledging diverse values and voices of stakeholders). Together, we co-create knowledge and tools with local communities, policymakers and practitioners. FairNature takes into account the political, organizational, and cultural contexts that shape people’s lives, ensuring that the needs and perspectives of stakeholders guide our work.
The main outcome of the project will be the ‘FairNature Guide’, a practical framework to support practitioners and policymakers in achieving just scaling of NbS for just transformative change.
