Nature and Partnerships: Building Global Coastal Resilience

The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami catalyzed global disaster risk reduction, yet accelerating sea-level rise, coastal urbanization, and escalating losses demand new approaches. This keynote argues that future resilience requires coupling engineered systems with nature-based solutions (NbS) and global partnerships integrating science, policy, finance, and community stewardship. Synthesizing evidence from the Indian Ocean basin, Indonesia’s mangrove rehabilitation, and hybrid projects worldwide, we demonstrate that ecosystems attenuate waves, shrink flood footprints, trap sediments, and generate co-benefits for carbon and livelihoods. Critical governance enablers include people-centred early warnings, long-term finance, and nature-positive land-use planning, aligned with global frameworks like Sendai and the Paris Agreement. We conclude with a call for a Blue-Green Resilience Compact: open data, investable NbS pipelines, community stewardship funds, and scale-able risk transfer instruments. Converting disaster memory into partnership investments can lower long-term risk and build coastal societies that live in harmony with water.