Unlocking Policy for Nature Based Solutions: Stage 1 - Research Synthesis Report

iCASP was awarded funding from the University of Leeds - Research England Policy Fund to develop an evidence base to unlock policy to support implementation of Nature Based Solutions (NBS) in England.

The project seeks to identify policy barriers in England to facilitate more widespread use of well evidenced NBS. This final report presents key challenges identified from four main activities:

1. Survey of practitioners which received 128 responses

2. Systematic literature review (SLR) of evidence of impacts from NBS activities – over 120 documents were reviewed.

3. Three themed stakeholder workshops on:

1) Green Finance: Unlocking Green Finance Opportunities;

2) Nature Based Solutions: Identifying key priorities and solutions;

3) Natural Flood Management Monitoring and Evaluation. There were approximately 150 participants across these three workshops.

4. Review of draft report with recommendations by an expert panel of 13 representatives from different regions of England, different types of NBS and mix of organisations and community groups.

Using the information gathered from the above activities, this report recommends improvements in policy to support evidence-based implementation of NBS.