Introduction

Climate change is having various impacts globally across society, including rising temperatures, sea level rise, more frequent and severe torrential rains, changes in precipitation patterns, and alterations in ocean currents. These changes significantly affect diverse sectors such as agriculture, public health, water use, energy production, and biodiversity (Rawat et al., 2024). Measures are needed to adapt to climate change and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in order to reduce the damage caused by these changes and to positively impact health, biodiversity, food security, and other areas (Korea Meteorological Administration, 2024).

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are gaining attention as an integrated solution to address complex environmental crises such as biodiversity loss and increased disasters. NbS are actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems in ways that effectively and adaptively address societal challenges, providing both human well-being and biodiversity benefits (International Union for Conservation of Nature [IUCN], 2020). The recognized scope of societal challenges currently includes climate change (adaptation and mitigation), disaster risk reduction, ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss, food security, human health, social and economic development, and water security. Importantly, while one or more societal challenges can be the entry point for NbS, the priority is to leverage the potential of NbS to provide multiple benefits, whereby one intervention addresses several challenges (IUCN, 2020).

Protected Areas can play an important role in climate change adaptation as NbS (Lipka et al., 2023). For example, Forests work to increase the minimum river low flow during droughts and to decrease the magnitude and pace of floods (Lipka et al., 2023). From this perspective, Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs)—regions scientifically proven to hold high ecological value for biodiversity conservation—can be viewed as more than mere conservation zones. They serve as foundational areas for providing diverse ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and disaster mitigation. Thus, KBAs represent crucial spatial units capable of maximizing the practical effectiveness of NbS.

KBA is a region that contributes significantly to the global conservation of biodiversity (Ahn & Kang, 2024), and the KBA standards were approved by the IUCN Council and launched at the 2016 World Conservation Congress in Hawaii (IUCN, 2022). As of 2025, 16,602 KBAs are registered worldwide (KBA homepage, 2025; November 1st), demonstrating their potential as a strategic foundation for applying NbS.

Additionally, NbS and KBA serve as indicators for fulfilling international commitments. NbS is utilized as a means to achieve Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) targets 8 (Minimize the Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity and Build Resilience) and 11 (Restore, Maintain and Enhance Nature’s Contributions to People). Meanwhile, KBAs are also used as indicators for KMGBF 3 (Conserve 30% of Land, Waters and Seas), as well as indicators for UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 15 (Life on land). Thus, KBAs transcend simple conservation areas; they represent spatial units that can contribute to the implementation of various international environmental goals through the strategic application of NbS. However, to maximize the strategic value of KBA, it is necessary to conceptually clarify the mechanism by which KBA—as sites critical for global biodiversity conservation—translate their intrinsic ecological value into practical contributions across the seven major societal and environmental challenges addressed by NbS.

This relationship forms the core of the research question: In what ways does the established function of KBAs as sites of critical importance for global biodiversity contribute to solving the diverse societal challenges prioritised by the NbS framework? This research analyzes existing literature and case studies to examine how NbS implemented in KBAs can contribute to solving specific social challenges, thereby identifying the multidimensional value of KBAs.

Materials and Methods

Results

Analysis of the 21 selected studies indicates that the societal challenge to which KBAs most frequently contribute is environmental degradation and biodiversity loss (Table 2) (Baumbach et al., 2023; Dong et al., 2024; Eken et al., 2004; Gacheru et al., 2023; Goyal et al., 2025; Kullberg et al., 2019; Lansley et al., 2025; Larsen et al., 2012; Máiz-Tomé et al., 2017; Mehlomakhulu & Buschke, 2023; Neugarten et al., 2014; 2018; Plumptre et al., 2019; 2024; 2025; Shrestha et al., 2021; Sun et al., 2022; Tognelli et al., 2017; Trew et al., 2024; Visconti et al., 2019; World Wide Fund for Nature, 2024). The next most frequently addressed areas are water security, followed by climate change mitigation and adaptation, economic and social development, disaster risk reduction, human health, and food security. Overall, these findings demonstrate that KBAs can function not only as sites for biodiversity conservation but also as strategic spatial units capable of contributing to the resolution of a wide range of major societal challenges.

The literature analysis indicates that most of the selected studies were conducted at a global scale (Eken et al., 2004; Kullberg et al., 2019; Lansley et al., 2025; Larsen et al., 2012; Neugarten et al., 2018; Plumptre et al., 2025; 2024; Sun et al., 2022; Trew et al., 2024; Visconti et al., 2019), followed by Africa (Gacheru et al., 2023; Mehlomakhulu & Buschke, 2023; Neugarten et al., 2018; Plumptre et al., 2019; World Wide Fund for Nature, 2024), Asia (Dong et al., 2024; Goyal et al., 2025; Shrestha et al., 2021), Europe (Máiz-Tomé et al., 2017), North America (Tognelli et al., 2017), and Central America (Baumbach et al., 2023).

Discussion

This research demonstrates that KBAs contribute to a wide range of societal and environmental challenges addressed through NbS, suggesting that KBAs have the capacity to function as strategic spatial units beyond their role in biodiversity conservation. The contributions observed in the environmental degradation and biodiversity loss reflect the fundamental ecological role of KBAs in sustaining species and habitats. As evidenced by Eken et al. (2004), Kullberg et al. (2019), and Plumptre et al. (2024), identifying and protecting KBAs represents one of the most effective approaches to preventing global biodiversity loss. For example, Baumbach et al. (2023) quantitatively demonstrated that protected areas within KBAs maintain higher biome stability than unprotected areas KBAs. These findings suggest that substantial policy-driven conservation efforts must accompany the identification process to effectively mitigate environmental degradation and biodiversity loss.

Protecting areas of high biodiversity, including KBAs, contributes to climate change mitigation by reducing CO₂ emissions through carbon storage and sequestration, while also supporting climate change adaptation (Gacheru et al., 2023; Larsen et al., 2012; Neugarten et al., 2018). In particular, Trew et al. (2024) show that tropical KBAs can function as climate refugia under changing temperature regimes. In addition, evidence from some KBAs demonstrates their contribution to disaster risk reduction through ecosystem functions such as flood regulation (Neugarten et al., 2018).

Beyond environmental benefits, KBAs have also been shown to support economic and social development, for example through ecotourism opportunities (Neugarten et al., 2018) and contributions to the maintenance of human cultural diversity (Larsen et al., 2012). Furthermore, studies on freshwater KBAs in the Mediterranean (Máiz-Tomé et al., 2017) and Canada (Tognelli et al., 2017) underscore the importance of defining geographic priorities for freshwater biodiversity conservation and managing these areas to secure adequate environmental flows necessary to sustain vulnerable freshwater ecosystems, thereby enhancing water security.

Case studies demonstrating the contribution of NbS within KBAs to addressing societal challenges were most frequently conducted at the global scale. However, when examined by region, a relatively larger number of studies were identified in Asia and Africa. This pattern may reflect the fact that KBA-related research has been particularly active in these regions, as well as that Asia and Africa contain extensive areas of high ecological value while simultaneously experiencing strong anthropogenic pressures such as development and land-use change (Goyal et al., 2025; Neugarten et al., 2018; Plumptre et al., 2019). Consequently, the need for NbS that can simultaneously support biodiversity conservation and address societal and environmental challenges may be especially pronounced in these regions.

This research has several limitations. First, the relatively small sample size (n=21) of the analyzed literature may limit the generalizability of the findings. In particular, contributions to human health and food security were not identified, with the exception of an analysis in Madagascar (Neugarten et al., 2018). This is likely due to the limited accumulation of research, given that the KBA standard was established relatively recently in 2016. Second, the literature selection criteria were restricted to documents explicitly mentioning ‘KBA’ and the ‘seven major societal challenges’ defined by the NbS Global Standard. Consequently, related studies using similar concepts or terminologies, such as ‘green infrastructure’ or ‘ecosystem-based adaptation,’ may have been excluded.

Despite these limitations, this research supports the hypothesis that KBAs provide a foundation for the application of NbS. Specifically, it suggests that KBAs can generate a wide range of societal benefits beyond conservation objectives and hold significant strategic value for advancing international environmental targets, including the KMGBF and the SDGs. To fully realize this potential, future research should quantitatively assess the multiple values of KBAs and strengthen their integration into policy frameworks and decision-making processes.