How Nature-Based Solutions Can Benefit People and Biodiversity
Q&A with Dr. Rachel Buxton
Dr. Rachel Buxton is an Associate Professor in Carleton University’s Institute of Environmental and Interdisciplinary Sciences (IEIS) and Department of Biology, where she leads the Biodiversity Conservation Solutions Lab. Her research focuses on developing evidence-based conservation solutions that protect biodiversity while improving human well-being. Recently, she received an NSERC Alliance Grant to advance nature-based solutions that create opportunities for habitat restoration, healthier ecosystems, and broader societal benefits.
We spoke with Dr. Buxton about the importance of interdisciplinary research, how nature-based solutions can benefit both people and biodiversity, and why Indigenous knowledge and partnerships are essential to creating meaningful conservation outcomes.
Thanks for chatting with us, Dr. Buxton. For readers who may not be familiar with your work, what does your research focus on, and why is it important?
My research looks at more effective ways of conserving nature. It focuses on conservation interventions – planned actions designed to protect, restore, or manage natural resources and biodiversity – and their outcomes and effectiveness. We also look at what we call “co-benefits,” which are the additional benefits conservation interventions can provide for people’s health and well-being. My main focus is birds, but we study many different species of animals and plants.
The primary focus of our lab is to produce evidence-based science that can be applied in the real world, whether that’s developing policy, improving management practices, or getting more people outside, connecting with nature. For example, we’ve studied the link between people’s mental health and the number of birds in their neighbourhoods. It turns out that greater bird diversity within a postal code is associated with better self-reported mental health.
We know that spending time outdoors makes us feel better. Now we’re building the scientific evidence showing that nature has tangible benefits for our health. Protecting nature isn’t just about protecting animals and plants. It’s also about protecting our own well-being.
Your interdisciplinary research on nature-based solutions earned you an Early Researcher Award (ERA) in 2025. What are nature-based solutions, and how has Carleton’s collaborative research environment helped advance this work?
The ERA recognized our research on how nature-based solutions in cities can provide dual benefits for human health and biodiversity. Nature-based solutions are interventions that work with nature rather than against it. For instance, we looked at tree planting in urban areas as a way to cool neighbourhoods, sequester carbon, and reduce noise. These are nature-based solutions, rather than relying on built infrastructure such as sound barriers.
I’m biased, but I think Carleton is the only place where I could do this type of research. The people in the Institute of Environmental Science and the Department of Biology are incredibly supportive of the applied, impact-driven science we do.
Carleton’s collaborative and forward-thinking research environment recognizes that we’re facing a biodiversity crisis, and that applied, interdisciplinary research can help drive meaningful, real-world change.
Indigenous knowledge and supporting Indigenous sovereignty are central to your research. How will this continue to shape your work moving forward?
The key to creating transformational change for nature is recognizing and amplifying Indigenous ways of knowing and doing everything we can to support Indigenous sovereignty.
This will continue to be a central focus of my research. One project led by a graduate student in my lab explores Indigenous land stewardship in urban areas. She is creating a knowledge basket for land stewards across the country. I collaborate on a program in Thunder Bay, Ont., where our undergraduate students collect acoustic recordings of birds and worked with local youth to create a book together. Connecting with young people in this region is a meaningful way to bring together art, science, and relationship-building.
What opportunities will you and your team’s recent NSERC Alliance Grant create, and what impact do you hope it will have?
With the NSERC Alliance Grant, we’re looking at the outcomes of forests and trees as nature-based solutions. For example, when we plant trees in cities, the objective is typically to sequester carbon or for cooling. The question we’re trying to answer is: What are the co-benefits for biodiversity and for other aspects of human health and well-being? We want our science to inform policymakers about how and when nature-based solutions produce good outcomes and how we can achieve more of them.
Another component of the grant is teaming up with partners like Tree Canada, several Indigenous organizations, the National Healing Forest Initiative, and federal and provincial governments to produce science that can be used in policymaking and in practice.
Some of the focuses of the grant are tree planting and urban greening, which means increasing and protecting the amount of vegetation in a city. Urban greening can have an immeasurable number of benefits, like cooling homes and preventing erosion and flooding. There’s also a forestry component.
What excites you most about bringing together researchers and partners from so many different disciplines and organizations?
There are so many things I’m excited about with this grant.
We’re looking at everything from carbon modeling to biodiversity to birds and bats, alongside the human health component. There is a real focus on teamwork because it’s such an interdisciplinary grant, so we have an inspiring team of people who are inspiring across disciplines, institutions, organizations, and ways of knowing.
When we plant a tree, everything is connected. That tree can foster an insect community and therefore a diverse community of birds. All that biodiversity has trickle-up effects on our own health. The holistic aspect of this is all very exciting.