NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR CLIMATE RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING IN THE PHILIPPINES

The report identifies critical areas in the Philippines where nature-based solutions (NbS)—specifically the conservation and restoration of forests and coastal ecosystems—can mitigate climate risks like flooding, landslides, and coastal storms. Using biophysical modeling, the study finds that protecting or restoring a small percentage of land (13-19%) could benefit approximately half of the population and over half of the national road network. It argues for integrating these findings into 'upstream' strategic infrastructure planning to avoid high-value ecosystems and prioritize restoration, thereby reducing long-term maintenance costs and enhancing overall climate resilience.

• Conserving priority areas within a 15-25km buffer of roads and settlements, which represents 19% of the Philippines' land area, is essential for the climate resilience of approximately 54 million people and 56% of the national road network.
• Broadening the scope to all potential NbS areas nationwide, conserving just 16% of the land area would support climate resilience for 43 million people and 42% of the road network.
• Restoring degraded forests on 13% of the country's land area would benefit approximately 51 million people and nearly 52% of the road network.
• A significant majority of the identified priority areas for NbS are currently unprotected, with 75% of unconstrained conservation areas, 83% of infrastructure-impacted conservation areas, and 93% of restoration areas lying outside the protected area (PA) network.
• The analysis identifies four essential ecosystem services for climate resilience: water provision, sediment retention, coastal protection, and flood risk reduction.
• The report emphasizes that NbS are most effective when integrated into 'upstream' strategic planning and routing decisions to avoid high-risk areas and identify restoration opportunities before project costs increase during later design phases.
• Regional analysis shows that for conservation, Regions II, III, VI, X, and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) are the top five regions for priority areas; for restoration, the top regions are I, II, III, IV-A, and X.

APA

Bartlett, R., Joshi, S., Chaplin-Kramer, B., Sharp, R., Ibay, G., & Roxas, D. (2025). NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR CLIMATE RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING IN THE PHILIPPINES. WWF International. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/726/69wb99rwto_WWF_SIPA_Philippines.pdf

Chicago

Bartlett, Ryan, Shail Joshi, Becky Chaplin-Kramer, Rich Sharp, Gia Ibay, and Dean Roxas. NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR CLIMATE RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING IN THE PHILIPPINES. WWF International, 2025. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/726/69wb99rwto_WWF_SIPA_Philippines.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bartlett |first1=Ryan |last2=Joshi |first2=Shail |last3=Chaplin-Kramer |first3=Becky |last4=Sharp |first4=Rich |last5=Ibay |first5=Gia |last6=Roxas |first6=Dean |title=NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR CLIMATE RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING IN THE PHILIPPINES |publisher=WWF International |date=2025 |url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/726/69wb99rwto_WWF_SIPA_Philippines.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bartlett2025naturebased, author = {Bartlett, Ryan and Joshi, Shail and Chaplin-Kramer, Becky and Sharp, Rich and Ibay, Gia and Roxas, Dean}, title = {{NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR CLIMATE RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING IN THE PHILIPPINES}}, institution = {WWF International}, year = {2025}, url = {https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/726/69wb99rwto_WWF_SIPA_Philippines.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }