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Building with Nature Asia

Building with Nature Asia is a regional initiative by Wetlands International and the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries in collaboration with EcoShape, the Global Centre on Adaptation, and ONE, convened in Indonesia, Philippines, India, Malaysia, and China to create 15 climate-resilient landscapes in the five countries by 2025, and scale up after throughout the continent. ‘Building with Nature’ integrates ecosystems services into water infrastructure practice. It has proven itself as a successful participative approach for coastal, river, lake and delta management, combining ecosystem restoration and engineered solutions in an optimal mix. Building with Nature solutions have multiple benefits: they can accelerate adaptation, enhance water and food supply, livelihoods, carbon storage, biodiversity conservation and health. This initiative aims to establish a Building with Nature Asia platform that can mobilize public and private actors, support implementation and up-scaling, facilitate knowledge development and foster exchange of experience between countries.

The team is currently setting up a “Centre of Excellence” that promotes Building with Nature approaches in Indonesia and throughout the region. An initial realized project is in Demak, directly adjacent to Semarang city, and addresses problems of subsidence, land loss, and flooding in the district. In Building with Nature projects, engineers and scientists work with the local communities and national and international stakeholders on integrated solutions for Nature-based Solutions at scale. In this program, ONE is designing the landscape propositions for each site. These landscape propositions are used as an engagement and project definition tool. Additionally, ONE consults the program at large about the interplay between physical and social elements of Building with Nature.

The initiative has been featured at one of the side events of the Climate Adaptation Summit 2021, “Accelerating Adaptation through Building with Nature in Asia.” The presentation video is available to view here.