Stefan Dekker

The consequences of mangrove degradation, including biodiversity loss and the decline of associated ecosystem services (ES), have created a global urgency to protect mangroves through more integrated approaches such as Nature-based Solutions (NbS). NbS are increasingly promoted to address these challenges; however, there is still a lack of studies that synthesize current knowledge on the role of mangrove NbS in delivering ES and supporting human well-being. Through a systematic review, this study identifies and expands the knowledge of four key ES outcomes of mangrove NbS: coastal protection, sediment regulation, climate regulation, and habitat and biodiversity. However, only a small fraction of the literature provides empirical evidence linking these services to welfare benefits, underscoring the complexity of NbS–ES–well-being relationships within dynamic social–ecological systems. We propose a framework that highlights institutions and governance, and complementary socio-economic actions as critical enablers for translating NbS interventions into broader social and ecological benefits. Looking ahead, advancing mangrove NbS science and practice, particularly in the Global South, will require transdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder, and North–South collaborations to co-produce contextually relevant and actionable knowledge that bridges science, policy, and practice.

Watershed restoration is widely promoted as a strategy for climate adaptation and land degradation control, yet long-term uptake and maintenance of restoration practices remain persistent challenges. This study focuses on Oromia, Ethiopia, examining how continuity, durability, and scalability of restoration practices are shaped by interactions between key barriers and enabling conditions across governance levels. Drawing on qualitative focus group discussions with 43 participants, including farmers, local administrators, technical experts, and policy actors across three woredas in Arsi Zone, the analysis identifies three cross-cutting clusters: planning quality, ownership and engagement, and coordination and accountability. The findings show that in Oromia, weaknesses in planning processes, particularly a campaign-based, top-down and quota-driven approach, constrain contextual adaptation, learning, and agroecological fit, among other factors. Barriers related to ownership and engagement highlight that in Oromia's watershed campaigns, participation is frequently short-term and incentive-driven with limited collective responsibility for sustaining structures and practices beyond short-term mobilisation. Challenges in coordination and accountability in Oromia, including fragmented mandates across governance levels and monitoring systems oriented toward upward reporting rather than horizontal learning, undermine credibility and adaptive capacity after campaign periods. Across these clusters, the interaction between barriers and enabling conditions gives rise to pathways that shape whether restoration efforts translate into sustained land-use change. Taken together, the results suggest that improving restoration outcomes in Oromia require system-level shifts aligning planning processes, community ownership arrangements, and institutional accountability mechanisms. The study highlights locally led climate adaptation as a practical entry point through site-specific planning, locally grounded monitoring, and social learning.

The Mediterranean Basin is identified as a climate change hotspot and prone to future drying. Through carbon sequestration, forests may mitigate climate change and reduce future drying. Nevertheless, the effect of forests on freshwater availability in the Mediterranean Basin is uncertain. Trees contribute to enhanced evapotranspiration, which may enhance drying; the resulting impact on precipitation in the Mediterranean Basin, however, remains unclear. Here we use a simple model to simulate the development of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) to determine the impact of forest on convective rainfall potential. There is convective rainfall potential when (1) the ABL reaches the lifting condensation level, and (2) there is sufficient convective available potential energy. We model the ABL development over the Mediterranean Basin for a bare soil scenario (covered fully with bare soil) and a forest scenario (covered fully with forest) to determine its land cover sensitivity. In addition, we examine the sensitivity of the ABL to variations in soil moisture for the forest scenario specifically. We identify two distinct responses to forest in the Mediterranean Basin dependent on soil moisture content. Forest contributes to warming and drying in relatively dry regions (low soil moisture content) and to cooling and wetting in relatively wet regions (high soil moisture content). We find that both forest cover and soil moisture contribute to convective rainfall potential. In regions with a relatively high soil moisture content, forest cover positively influences both the convective available potential energy, and the crossing of the ABL and lifting condensation level. The results suggest that forestation in the Mediterranean Basin may contribute to local precipitation in relatively wet regions and reduce local precipitation in relatively dry regions.