The nature-based solutions (NbS) approach states that achieving the multiple benefits of nature for health and well-being requires wider stakeholder collaboration and integration of nature into the policies. As a holistic and leading concept, NbS has become progressively more diversified and systematic as a starting point in the process of continuously responding to the global demand for sustainable development. Due to the current pressure of rural modernization and industrialization, rural areas are facing social and environmental challenges such as a lack of cultural identity, low democratic participation, and the destruction of landscape ecology, especially in China, a large and representative developing country.

Based on stakeholder participation for NbS project collaboration being increasingly recognized as a promising approach, this study first reviews the current findings and outlines stakeholder participation for NbS from five perspectives: policies, benefits, challenges, methods, and frameworks. Although there is a rich amount of corresponding research results, the various research perspectives are scattered; in particular, there is a lack of research on indigenous participation perspectives, which has not yet developed a systematic way of thinking.

Read the full paper here: Liu, H. & Martens, P. (2023). Stakeholder Participation for Nature-Based Solutions: Inspiration for Rural Area’s Sustainability in China. Sustainability, 15(22), 15934, https://doi.org/10.3390/su152215934