Table 1 Summary of intervention and outcome typology

Nature-based interventions for climate change mitigation

Protection

Establishing or expanding measures of protection for natural or semi-natural ecosystems for the purposes of conserving/regulating ecosystem services and natural landscapes/resources. Land or resource use is either fully restricted or significantly regulated. Specifically, actions intend to prevent conversion of forest or grasslands to croplands

Forest and other land use management (FOLU)

Actions directed at managing existing natural or semi-natural ecosystems OR created ecosystems for either the purposes of conserving/regulating ecosystem services and natural landscapes and/or providing sustained natural resources for use

Agricultural management

Actions directed at managing agricultural systems to mitigate climate change where possible—including climate or weather related risk (both extreme and slow-onset events), to improve food security in the short and long term. For NbIs, these actions should aim to be socially and culturally appropriate for the area where it is being practiced

Restoration

Actively re-establishing, enhancing, or establishing ecosystems to return them to natural or semi-natural states for the purposes of conserving/regulating ecosystem services and natural landscapes

Climate change mitigation outcomes

Proxy outcomes

Changes in land condition (characteristics of ecosystems that affect its carbon storage potential); Changes in vegetation cover; Changes in land use

Direct outcomes

Change in emissions of greenhouse gasses (in metric tons of CO2eq); Changes in quantity of carbon stored in aboveground biomass and organic matter; Changes in the rate of carbon sequestration in aboveground biomass and organic matter

Other outcomes

Adoption of practices/uptake

Related to the change in uptake of agricultural, land-use management, or forest management practices

Socioeconomic (co-benefit)

Related to changes in individual and/or collective well-being characterized by social and economic dimensions (economic well-being, health, safety and security, rights and empowerment, education and skills, social capital, culture) as well as agricultural productivity

Biological/ecological (co-benefit)

Related to changes in population, species, and /or community status, abundance, and/or structure; Outcomes related to changes in ecosystem function

Belowground carbon

Related to changes in belowground organic and inorganic carbon stocks and organic carbon sequestration rates