A Policy And Investment Framework For A Healthier Planet, People, And Communities

The world today faces a convergence of crises – environmental, economic, and human. Indeed, our warming planet, biodiversity loss, and declining public health are not isolated emergencies. They are interconnected, interdependent systems. And successfully addressing these challenges requires an innovative and cross-sector approach.

Nature-based solutions (NbS) provide such a framework. Defined as actions that protect, restore, and sustainably manage ecosystems, NbS reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, improve human health and wellbeing, and help cultivate economic stability. And they do so cost-effectively. The potential is extraordinary. In fact, leading scientists from The Nature Conservancy (TNC) estimate that protecting and restoring forests, wetlands, and grasslands could deliver up to 37 percent of global emission reductions needed to keep global temperature increases below dangerous levels and in line with their 2030 goals. That is huge.

Nature is at the very core of the changing climate challenge. And it can be a major part of the solution. Natural systems absorb nearly half of all human-generated carbon dioxide, making them one of our most powerful tools for long-term sustainability. As we look for more innovative and cost-effective ways to prevent hotter and hotter days, stabilize weather patterns, and pull more carbon out of the air, NbS can lead the way – creating pathways to resilience that benefit both planetary and human health.

Planetary Health is Public Health

Forests, wetlands, and oceans collectively form the planet’s largest carbon sink, meaning that they absorb more carbon from the air than they produce, which helps cool the climate and buffers communities from disaster. But, when these ecosystems start to degrade, the effects are immediate and compounding. Deforestation accelerates flooding and droughts. Wetland loss erodes coastal defenses and drinking-water security. Soil degradation undermines food systems. And biodiversity loss destabilizes disease regulation. The World Health Organization and International Union for Conservation of Nature describe this convergence as a “planetary emergency,” linking nature’s ecosystem decline directly to diminished human health and wellbeing — specifically to increases in respiratory illness, vector-borne disease, malnutrition, and mental health burdens.

The clinical and scientific evidence linking declining environmental health to human disease is extensive. The spread of malaria and ebola, for example, has been traced to deforestation and land conversion that increased human-wildlife contact. Elevated carbon dioxide has been shown to reduce the nutrient content of staple crops, driving 10-18% declines in protein, iron, and zinc in wheat and rice. Likewise, urban heat, air pollution, and climate anxiety, have been found to compound the physiological and psychological stresses of modern living.

Planetary health becomes public health. It’s increasingly clear that ecosystem integrity underpins the basic conditions for life – clean air, safe water, nutritious food, and stable climate regulation. When these systems falter, so do we. But nature-based strategies help to more comprehensively address these challenges. They improve air and water quality, enhance food security, support mental health, and increase access to natural medicines. They enhance the health of our communities. Here’s proof:

• In Louisville, Kentucky, Green Heart Project researchers, working with The Nature Conservancy and the National Institutes of Health, have been testing whether neighborhood greening can reduce cardiovascular risk. After planting more than 8,000 trees and shrubs in low-income neighborhoods with high pollution exposure, they found residents’ high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels — a key inflammation marker — were lower by 13-20%. These reduced levels correspond to a nearly 10-15% reduction in the risk of heart attacks, strokes, or cancer. The controlled clinical trial proved a quantifiable, positive public-health return on a green investment, providing a replicable model for linking environmental interventions with measurable human health metrics.

• New York City’s Watershed Protection Program provides clean drinking water to 9.5 million people, saving billions in treatment costs and maintaining ecosystem function. The initiative began in the 1990s, as the state and federal regulators sought to meet the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Rather than build another water treatment plant at the cost of $8-10 billion, the city invested $1.5 billion over 10 years in preserving its forested watershed and restoring critical habitats to protect its water at the source. The water supply is among the cleanest in the world.
• Dune restoration efforts in coastal New Jersey, including The Nature Conservancy’s work to restore the South Cape May Meadows Preserve, played a vital role in reducing flooding and storm damage when Hurricane Sandy hit the Atlantic Coast in 2012. A 2017 analysis estimated that coastal wetlands saved more than $625 million in direct property damages during Hurricane Sandy and reduced annual property losses by nearly 20 percent in Ocean County, N.J. Research has shown that coastal marshes can reduce wave energy by over 50%, and are estimated to provide storm protection valued at $23.2 billion annually in the U.S.

These three examples show that NbS do more than slow climate change – they work to prevent illness, strengthen public health systems, and build community resilience. Thus, it makes sense that healthy ecosystems are the very foundation of healthy, resilient communities. By protecting and preserving balance within ecosystems, we aren’t just conserving nature. We’re preventing disease, improving quality of life, and creating conditions for every community to thrive.

Oceans: Life-support for you and me

The term nature-based typically conjures up trees, forests, soil, streams, and wildlife. To those living on the coasts, the first thing that comes to mind is the ocean. And for good reason. Oceans are the planet’s largest life-support system, and thus one of our most powerful nature-based solutions for human health and well-being. Covering more than 70% of Earth’s surface, they regulate climate, generate half the oxygen we breathe, and absorb about one-third of all human carbon dioxide emissions each year. They also capture more than 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases, buffering us from even more extreme warming. Healthy oceans sustain billions of people through food, medicine, and livelihoods; they regulate the water cycle and reduce disease. Coral reefs, the “rainforests of the sea,” support a quarter of all marine life and protect nearly 200 million people from coastal storms.

So how do we protect an ocean? By reducing pollution and curbing overfishing; by expanding marine-protected areas that allow ecosystems to recover. It includes restoring mangroves, seagrasses, and coral reefs, cutting plastic waste, and minimizing to the extent possible fossil fuel emissions that drive warming and acidification. Protecting oceans safeguards both planetary and human health.

Innovative Financing for Nature

Despite clear benefits, NbS remain drastically underfunded. Current global investments in NbS total approximately USD $200 billion per year, less than half what the United Nations Environment Programme estimates is needed annually by 2030 to effectively address biodiversity loss, land degradation, and the effects of hotter days. This financing gap is a substantial shortfall; but looked at differently it also represents a vast opportunity for action — to innovate and align modern financial systems with proven planetary and public health pathways.

Harnessing Carbon Markets

High-integrity carbon markets offer one promising path to scale. In 2023, global carbon pricing revenues reached USD $104 billion, with more than half directed toward climate and nature initiatives. The voluntary carbon market, projected to grow to USD $100 billion by 2035 if barriers are effectively addressed, enables companies to fund verified ecosystem restoration while accelerating their own decarbonizing efforts. Contrary to perceptions that carbon credits are “licenses to pollute,” evidence strongly suggests that firms purchasing voluntary offsets are in fact more likely to reduce gross emissions than peers who do not.

Innovating Through Sovereign Debt

Beyond carbon markets, new financing mechanisms are transforming national debt into another creative tool for conservation. Many of these initiatives have been pioneered by The Nature Conservancy working with partners. Belize’s 2021 “Blue Bond” initiative, for instance, refinanced USD $364 million in debt in exchange for protecting 30 percent of its marine area by 2026. Similarly, Barbados’s 2022 debt conversion generated USD $50 million for regional conservation and ocean stewardship over 15 years. The model’s success, particularly in a non-distressed economy like Barbados, shows its potential for replication across a wider range of nations. More broadly, though, these innovations reveal how smart financial restructuring can measurably advance sustainable environmental outcomes without compromising economic sovereignty.

Taken together, these sovereign nature/blue-bond conversions have committed on the order of $1.3–$1.45 billion in dedicated conservation funding (in Seychelles, Belize, Barbados, Gabon, Ecuador’s Galápagos and Amazon regions, and The Bahamas), with The Nature Conservancy’s Nature Bonds portfolio alone projecting about USD $1 billion unlocked to help improve management of approximately 242 million hectares of land, freshwater, and ocean. That is scale achieved though creative modern finance mechanisms.

Valuing Ecosystem Services

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) offer another powerful mechanism. By compensating communities for stewarding natural assets that generate shared benefits, PES programs convert ecological value into tangible economic incentives. New York City’s Watershed Agricultural Program remains the gold-standard example. Rather than building a costly filtration system, the city pays farmers in the Catskills to protect upstream water quality, resulting in decades of clean, unfiltered drinking water for millions of residents.

Call for comprehensive measurement

To take NbS to scale, we must have comprehensive measurement that quantitatively examines the full spectrum of benefits. For decades, environmental progress has been narrowly measured, almost exclusively in carbon. Yet if the ultimate goal of sustainability is to protect life and enhance well-being, then metrics must start reflecting a totality of human outcomes as well. The WHO-IUCN Framework started calling for the inclusion of indicators such as reduction in heat-related illness, improvements in water security, and gains in community well-being when evaluating NbS. These more complete measures help establish much needed empirical support for the wide range of benefits that come from protecting the natural world around us: healthier people, more resilient economies, and restored ecosystems.

On a more macro-level, accurate measurement requires us to view public health, environmental protection, and economic resilience as interdependent systems. We know that a community with thriving green spaces and clean waterways is not just greener. It’s cooler, healthier, and more productive. We know that a nation that values biodiversity can better safeguard its agricultural base and food security. And we know that cities that invest in green infrastructure, such as urban forests, permeable pavements, and restored wetlands, save on healthcare while improving quality of life. We are seeing NbS lead to reduced emissions, lower anxiety, fewer weather- and environment-related hospital admissions, lower storm damage costs, a decline in mortality during heatwaves, and stronger community cohesion. The returns clearly speak for themselves, but we need more data and peer-reviewed studies to even more specifically quantify the returns on nature-based investments.

Conclusion

The evidence is overwhelming. Investing in nature is among the most effective strategies for strengthening climate resilience, improving population and individual health, and fostering economic stability. We know that NbS work. Now, we have the opportunity to scale them by improving empirical evidence and aligning policy, financing structures, and community leadership to accelerate implementation at every level.

The scientific community has a vital role to play. Quantifying the full spectrum of benefits catalyzed by NbS – reduction in disease incidence, improvements in mental health, gains in economic productivity – provides the empirical foundation for meaningful policy adoption and financial investment. The next generation of sustainability research must be deeply interdisciplinary, bridging epidemiology, environmental science, and economics to capture the true returns of investing in nature.

NbS offer perhaps the clearest path to a future in which planetary health and human health advance together. When we protect the systems that sustain life, we build communities that are more resilient, fair, and thriving.