There is growing recognition of the role that well-managed ecosystems can play in supporting adaptation - through increasing resilience and decreasing vulnerability of people and their livelihoods to the impacts of climate change. Well-managed ecosystems have a greater potential to adapt to climate change, resist and recover more easily from extreme weather events, and provide a wide range of benefits on which people depend. In contrast, poorly managed, fragmented and degraded ecosystems can increase the vulnerability of people and nature to the impacts of climate change.

Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) includes a range of local and landscape scale strategies that enable both people and nature to adapt in the face of climate change. An ecosystem-based approach to adaptation is compatible and supportive of a wide range of local and national development objectives, as well as with ongoing adaptation efforts at community level, and with existing priorities identified in many of the most vulnerable countries. EbA is appropriately implemented as part of a suite of adaptation responses including education, training, awareness-raising, and structural and engineering measures where appropriate. EbA shares the attributes associated with good practice adaptation, and as with all adaptation options, there remains uncertainty associated with the costs and limits of EbA. It is therefore important to monitor and review EbA measures, and implement adaptive management approaches. EbA provides opportunities for synergy in policy and practice