Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) are actions to protect, better manage and restore nature to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and store carbon. Science shows that— if deployed alongside other rapid decarbonization efforts such as cutting out fossil-fuel use and accelerating renewable energy—nature can help us avoid the worst impacts of climate change and deliver a third of the emission reductions needed by 2030.

Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) are a subset of Nature-based solutions (NbS) that are focused on climate mitigation benefits. We have continued to use the term NCS to denote the specific accounting framework we have developed but encourage substituting the term NbS, or simply “nature,” as useful and appropriate for the audience.

Naturebase will continue to evolve with new features and additional datasets. The current version includes accurate data for 20 Natural Climate Solutions pathways and activities, including:

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While many existing platforms serve the purpose of monitoring and reporting of progress around different natural ecosystems, such as the tracking of deforestation rates, naturebase focuses on identifying opportunities to protect, restore and sustainably manage nature to reduce the impacts of climate change. Our platform offers the largest database of peer-reviewed science on Natural Climate Solutions, combined with additional resources such as co-benefits, policies, and case studies at the global, national and subnational levels.

Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IP&LCs) steward a quarter of the world’s lands and most of the world’s biodiversity. We recognize that IP&LCs are the true stewards of the Earth's lands and waters – and have been stewards of nature for centuries. Naturebase intends to both respect and support these communities in their own pursuit of informed and self-determined climate and land use decision-making.

The platform includes the NCS Human Rights Toolset, which was specially designed to help screen existing and proposed projects for ongoing or potential future risks to human rights and agency. Beyond that, sensitive data such as land tenure, as well as those uploaded onto the platform are private and secure, conforming with principles of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC).

Naturebase is supported by the Nature4Climate coalition and developed by global experts at The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, the World Resources Institute, the Global Mangrove Alliance, ETH Zurich, Stockholm Environment Institute, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Clarke University, World Wildlife Fund, Wageningen University, and the Clean Cooking Alliance with contributions from numerous other organizations and agencies across the environmental sector. As a free online tool that is built upon public transparent, open source, peer-reviewed science and designed to serve climate change initiatives. Naturebase does not intend to promote specific brands nor include any for-profit features.

In 2020, the Bezos Earth Fund pledged $10 billion (USD) over the next decade to fight the impact of climate change. The Nature Conservancy received a portion of this gift to dramatically expand the scientific tools needed to take Natural Climate Solutions to scale, across the globe. The funding is also focused on building equitable solutions that benefit communities impacted by climate change by engaging diverse community stakeholders, indigenous leadership, and others.

The specific methodology and input data used to calculate the mitigation potential will vary among pathways and adhere to the core principles of Natural Climate Solutions. Each spatial datasets presented here estimate the mitigation potential of Natural Climate Solution activities derived from original geospatial analysis using the latest satellite and peer-reviewed datasets of current land systems, varied geospatial data, and carbon emissions/sequestration estimates informed by peer-reviewed publications. For more information see our data download section.

The pathway data represents the latest and most accurate estimations of the mitigation potential associated with each dataset. These estimations may be subject to updates, influenced by advancements in global scientific knowledge, changes in emissions factors or available global extent data, and will differ for each dataset.

Climate mitigation potential will either be expressed as increased sequestration for restoration pathways (usually expressed in units of metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent sequestered per year), avoided loss based on historic conversion (usually expressed in units of metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per hectare) for the protect pathways, or the increased sequestration or reduced emissions due to a combination for improved management practices for the manage pathways.

The baseline used for each pathway is dependent on each specific dataset. Accounting horizons will be standardized for each pathway for the years 2035 and 2050. All data assumptions and caveats are indicated in the individual methodology sections and will vary per dataset. For more information on the pathways, consult the data download section.