Abstract
Nature-based solutions (NbS) offer significant potential for effective climate change adaptationAdaptation. NbS strengthen biodiversity and ecosystems but must also center human wellbeing. However, understandings and models of wellbeing differ and evolve; some focus on narrow objective measures, and others are broader and more multidimensional. Some models, for example, from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, premise ecological connection and highlight living in harmony with nature as fundamental across cultures. Different cultures have different relationships with nature, and therefore NbS can have different meanings in terms of cultural values and wellbeing in varying contexts. Climate change also impacts the wellbeing of groups of people differently, with Indigenous people and vulnerable groups more likely to be negatively affected and in greater magnitude. This means that NbS also have a social-justice aspect to them. Therefore nature-based adaptation Adaptationagendas that link closely to Indigenous ecological knowledge and understandings of wellbeing, which can enhance cultural connection to NbS, and advance justice, are key to developing more effective NbS, including in urban areas. This chapter examines how localized understandings of wellbeing and justice must underpin NbS. This is illustrated by wellbeing thinking from OceaniaOceania, highlighting that ecological connection and holistic understandings of human-ecology-climate relationships are fundamental. This is also demonstrated through findings from research exploring processes for nature-based urban design solutions driven by Indigenous knowledges that support just climate change adaptation Adaptationand wellbeing from specific locations in Oceania.