On March 25th, the Institute of European Studies, alongside the Center of Excellence in French and Francophone Studies and the French Embassy in the US organized a presentation by Joana Guerrin, a visiting Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley within the college of Environmental Design. At Berkeley, Guerrin has been working alongside Matt Kondolf and Anna Serra Llobt on a project titled “Nature-based Solutions from Theory to Practice: comparing France and the US”, which is funded by the Program Post AgreenSkills Fund. Her presentation was attended by 15 people and delved into her research on the nature-based solutions in American and French public policy regarding climate-change related flood governance.
Guerrin began the presentation by explaining what brought her to the concept of nature-based solutions. While on a research trip to Brazil, she was struck by the world water day theme of the year “solutions we already find in nature.” This theme sparked her curiosity about how nature-based solutions could solve issues within the water cycle and be implemented in a policy setting. She joined a Franco-American research team using mixed methods of research including qualitative semi-structured interviews, field visits, participant observation, quantitative observation, quantitative analysis, and document analysis. Nature-based solutions have been a success in the international area, and it has been a topic of discussion at the ICUN World Conservation Congress, the UNEA in Nairobi in 2022, the IPCC-IPBES Joint workshop, alongside many other conferences.
Guerrin then addressed how the concept and implementation of nature-based solutions have been met with public discontent from grassroots movements, states, and NGOs when used for green-washing purposes. One of the main issues Guerrin draws attention to is how private corporations have used “nature-based solutions'' to appear more environmentally minded in their carbon neutrality strategies, without truly improving their environmental impact. France and the US have had different reactions to this approach on a policy level, with numerous efforts in France but with little funding. In the US, nature-based solutions have been implemented to a lesser extent, but have appeared federally in the inflation reduction act, the infrastructure investment jobs act, and within the flood policy sector. Guerrin’s presentation sparked many questions about the development of nature-based solutions, the future of such policies, as well as how its impact can be measured on nation and local levels.