Defending with Nature: Security, Resilience and Recovery in Ukraine and Beyond

Nature is both Ukraine’s largest war casualty and one of its most cost-effective instruments of recovery and defence. Some 812 protected areas, close to a million hectares, have been in the active combat zone or under occupation; more than 750,000 hectares of forest have burned; and around a fifth of the country, some 128,000 km², remains contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance. The damage goes well beyond ecology. Degraded land, broken hydrology and contaminated soil determine where troops and vehicles can move, whether water and energy supply holds, how much food the country can grow, and how quickly liberated communities can go home.

This high-level session makes the case for Nature-based Solutions (NbS) as core recovery and resilience infrastructure. It examines how restored floodplains, wetlands, steppe, forests and field shelterbelts deliver flood and drought protection, soil retention, carbon sequestration and rural livelihoods at lower cost and lower risk than engineered alternatives, and how those same landscapes underpin the resilience of critical infrastructure and the protection of civilians.

The drained Kakhovka reservoir bed, the historic Velykyi Luh or “Great Meadow”, offers a live and contested case study in when to rebuild grey infrastructure and when to let a landscape return. With Türkiye hosting COP31 as both a Black Sea littoral state and a NATO Ally, Antalya is a fitting place for this discussion.