Nature-based Solutions in Cold Arid Landscapes: Opportunities for Integrated Land, Water, and Livelihood Resilience

Cold arid landscapes are amongst the most vulnerable, climate-stressed regions in the world. They are characterised by limited biomass, slow ecological processes, fragile soils and tightly coupled climate-land-water-livelihoods systems. The geo-physical and ecological constraints often make us think whether the applicability of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) is feasible in such an environment. This perspective paper argues that NbS remain highly relevant in cold arid regions- not because of natural capital abundance, but because of their design dimension as overarching and integrative framework. NbS design can simultaneously restore land functions, regulate water availability, sustain climate-sensitive biodiversity, and economic development while also promoting inclusive institutions and adaptive management. Drawing on insights from the Hindu Kush Himalaya and other regions of the world, the paper highlights that in an ecologically constrained space, resilience comes not from abundance and scale of nature, but from its coherent design that sustains ecological functions and processes, minimising both ecological and socio-economic vulnerabilities. We thus position NbS as a core resilience strategy for cold arid socio-ecological systems under accelerating climate change