The vision and concepts of Minato Mirai 21 have been embodied through public-private collaboration in accordance with the basic agreement of 1988 among landowners and other stakeholders around the central district. Particularly, the agreement enables the landowners to take a strong initiative in formulating local rules for well-balanced development. Also, the agreement requires the obligation of all office developers to provide a certain amount of public open spaces and social activity floors in their properties. It further stipulates detailed standards and rules on building design, such as minimum site scale, height restriction, pedestrian circulations, and setbacks of exterior walls.

Governance for adaptation requires an ecosystemic vision, whereby actions implemented in the field for building up the resilience of natural resources focus more on protecting watershed ecosystem services (forest-water-soil) and less on responding only to problems found at the level of individual farms. For this reason, the prioritization of restoration areas is key, since it must be with a view to improving water capture and also productivity (local livelihoods). The three types of EbA measures implemented in the Goascorán River basin were: 1) restoration of water sources, 2) soil conservation, and 3) agroforestry systems. This combination recognizes the interdependence of the forest-water-soil components and allows communities to witness positive changes over intermediate periods, which in turn increases their confidence in the "natural solutions" being introduced for water and food security. Territorial management with a basin or micro-basin vision also contributes to the ecosystem approach that is required for sustainable development, that is, one that is adaptive to climate change.

Adaptation to climate change is immersed in a series of uncertainties regarding future climate impacts and development trajectories. Therefore, adaptation must proceed under a flexible “learning by doing" approach, integrating flexibility into legal and policy frameworks, and into sequential and iterative decisions that generate short-term strategies in view of the long-term uncertainties. In Goascorán, the lack of regulatory and policy frameworks for the management of shared basins limits the capacity to jointly respond to climate change - and therefore to be flexible and learn. This limitation was remedied by integrating adaptation into various management instruments at the micro-watershed, municipal and national level, and in transboundary agendas between local actors. The effectiveness of these (and other new) frameworks should be evaluated in interim periods, to allow for revisions and adjustments as knowledge about climate change increases; the same is true for EbA measures in the short term. The information that underpins these iterative processes must integrate Western science with local knowledge. In this way, it is possible to be flexible and identify new adaptation options and criteria for its evaluation.

The participation of all basin stakeholders has been at the core of the conformation and training of new governance structures for the Lituy (Honduras) and Honduritas (El Salvador) microbasins. The integration of grassroots (community-based) organizations, such as water boards, producer associations, women's or youth groups, Community Development Associations and educational centers, has been important. Locally, the leadership shown by teachers, women and community authorities contributed significantly to social mobilization and the adoption and scaling-up of EbA measures, making these actors an essential part of the "learning by doing" processes of communities. The result is self-motivated communities that participate and take on responsibilities. At the basin level, the Goascorán River Basin Council on the Honduran side was expanded, while in El Salvador, the most appropriate figure to accommodate the broad membership required was the Environmental Technical Table, which is why two Tables (for the northern and southern areas of La Union) were created and strengthened. Many of the members have become advocates for the work of the Tables with the aim to have these structures recognized by local authorities and legalized in the medium term.

The work in Goascorán targeted several levels of decision-making to reinforce the basin’s governance through the vertical and horizontal articulation of socio-political platforms; all of this in order to achieve a multidimensional (multilevel and multisectoral) governance model for adaptation. At the community level, EbA measures were implemented in the field to improve food and water security. With municipalities, adaptation to climate change was incorporated into Environmental and Municipal Development Plans. At the micro-basin level, two Micro-basin Committees (one on each side of the border) were created as multi-stakeholder governance platforms, receiving training, preparing internal regulations and plans, and enabling wide-ranging advocacy (e.g. civil society, municipalities and municipal commonwealths). At the basin level, in El Salvador, where several Technical Tables operate, two Environmental Technical Tables were established for the north and south of La Union in order to articulate the basin’s shared management, and linkages were sought with the Goascorán River Basin Council that operates on the Honduran side. At the national level, the recent National Adaptation Plan of Honduras comprises the EbA approach, as does the new Regulation of the Honduran Climate Change Law

 Within Chiapas rural governance structures, the ejido Assembly is the main social platform where participatory decisions are made regarding natural resources. Ejido land tenure in Mexico is an example of individual and communal tenure co-existing within communities. Communal lands are titled in the name of the community leaders. Ejido Azteca and Alpujaras are partly witin the Tacana Volcano Reserve.

With a view to increasing the ejidos adaptive and management capacity main actions undertaken under this solution were:

• Training on climate change legal and policy frameworks was delivered to ejido leaders and municipalities officers.
• Development of the Local Strategy for Sustainable Development under Climate Change of La Azteca ejido.
• Conformation of ejido's Water Committees. 
• Public presentations on events such as the VII National Congress on Climate Change Research. Leaders shared the benefit of soil conservation practices and forest protection to water security.

After analysing vulnerabilities and adaptation establishing priorities, the ejido La Azteca and ejido Alpujarras sought to protect the ecosystem services provided by their forests (water capture, biodiversity, soil and fertility structure) aiming to benefit their livelohoods and resilience to climate change.

The following EbA measures and actions were implemented to face heavy rains, storms, erosion and to improve ecosystem resilience, soil water retention and water downstream. 

1. Protection and restoration of the cloud forest in the Tacaná Volcano Reserve. Specific actions were: 

• natural regeneration of forest degraded areas

• reforestation with native species

• wildfire preventative measures such as firebreaks

• soil conservation practices
• surveillance to prevent illegal logging, illegal hunting and extraction of flora and fauna, forest fires, and to detect outbreaks of pests

2. Optimization of agroforestry systems,: 

• Soil conservation practices (e.g. live fences, terraces and breakwater small natural constructions). Live fences use plant species to divide plots, provide shade and protect againts erosion.
• introducing forest and fruit species into coffee plantations (shade-grown).

Measures helped to improve and maintain the resilience and integrity of the natural forest.

An "action learning" approach consisted of training and supporting communities to implement EbA measures. 

• A socio-environmental vulnerability assessment of 2 ejidos (211 families) was carried out in a participatory manner to identify and prioritize EbA measures.
• Technical support is provided complementing families' traditional knowledge, to ensure that EbA measures contribute to food and water security.
• Exchanges and trainings are organized for producers, ejido authorities and municipalities on climate change, food security, sustainable forest management and soil conservation.

Furthermore, the solution focused on generating evidence on the benefits of EbA measures on water and food security:

• In collaboration with IUCN and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) household surveys were carried out to study the benefits of the EbA measures or food security.  The joint methodology was also applied in five other countries.
• A methodology to understand the effectiveness of EbA on water security was developed and was applied in La Azteca and Alpujarras. The methods include: interviews, focus groups and environmental  data collection in the field (e.g. water quality).

IUCN entered into the Dhamra port project because of concern about the port harming Olive Ridley turtles. As IUCN dug into the problems, however, it learned that the mortality rate of the turtles had already increased dramatically. A report prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India indicated that turtle mortality had increased from a few thousand a year in the early 1980s to more than 10,000 by the mid 1990s. Mechanized trawl fishing and gill net fishing were seen to be responsible for the mortalities.

Local community awareness regarding the value of the turtles was low. To address this, the IUCN team engaged in community sensitizing activities, including creative educational programs, as well as traditional outreach. DPCL also established a community training centre so that local villagers could develop new skills.

IUCN also identified that the use of Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) could be helpful in reducing turtle mortality due to trawl fishing, one of the biggest problems in the areas. The devices weren’t new to fishers in the Dhamra area – Indian NGOs and scientists had tested them with the fishers in the past – but they weren’t being used. The IUCN DPCL team consulted extensively with local fishing cooperative officers and communities to better understand the issues.

Dredging, recognized as a serious threat to the marine turtles, was identified by IUCN as a priority.  IUCN, with experts from the Species Survival Commission’s Marine Turtle Specialist Group designed and developed a dredging protocol to be followed during port operations. These included installing turtle deflectors on all dredger drag-heads to help ensure turtles were not pulled into the dredger. Trained observers were assigned to all dredgers to monitor this process. These observers would check screens on inflow and overflow pipes on a 24/7 basis. These measures (deflectors, screens, and human observers) were put in place to ensure that the dredging was “turtle friendly”. Such measures were the first to have been put in place in the history of dredging activities in India.

Lighting was the second major threat identified because excess glare is known to distract turtle hatchlings as they instinctively move towards brightly lit areas and away from the sea. For this, the IUCN Commission experts provided specific guidelines for the port’s lighting plan, which was adopted by the port authorities. IUCN further supported Tata Steel in identifying the right design for these lights. Today, Dhamra Port is the first and only port in India to have installed “turtle friendly” lighting.