Table 2 Typology of primary natural climate solution interventions (detailed typology in Additional File 6)

Protection

Establishing or expanding measures of protection for natural or semi-natural ecosystems for the purposes of conserving/regulating ecosystem services and preventing the loss of natural landscapes/resources. Land or resource use is either fully restricted or significantly regulated. In particular, actions in this space intended to prevent conversion of forest or grasslands to tilled croplands and other intensive land uses (e.g. residential, mining)

Examples include protected areas, parks, indigenous territories

Forest and Other Land Use Management

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. In the context of NCS, management actions can avoid GHG emissions or enhance carbon sinks on working lands through improved management practices that do reduce existing yield

Examples include forest management, forestry, grasslands management, climate-smart forestry, reduced impact logging, agroforestry, Ramsar sites (for mangroves). This would include management actions to restore carbon stocks in existing production lands

Agricultural Management

Agricultural systems that increase food security in the face of climate change, enhance adaptive capacity of farmers to the impacts of climate change, and mitigate climate change where possible. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) approaches should (1) address climate or weather related risk (both extreme and slow-onset events) while improving food security in the short and long term, (2) provide at the minimum two benefits out of productivity, resilience, and mitigation, and (3) be socially and culturally appropriate for the area where they are being practiced. These technologies are typically accompanied by actions to improve enabling conditions—e.g. infrastructure development, social safety nets. To be included in this map, we focus on climate-smart agricultural practices that aim to reduce GHG emissions and/or store carbon aboveground (i.e. excluding measures solely targeted at soil carbon sequestration)

Examples include conservation agriculture, nutrient management, improved rice cultivation, agroecological practices, agroforestry, silvopastoralism, livestock and grazing management, and manure management

Restoration

Re-establishing, enhancing, or establishing ecosystems to return them to natural or semi-natural states for the purposes of conserving/regulating ecosystem services and expanding the spatial extent of natural landscapes that have been lost due to previous human activity. Includes actions to create new ecosystems in place of a naturally occurring one or where one does not exist

Examples include reforestation, afforestation and passive restoration, and other approaches following the principles of Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR)