Healthy ecosystems such as forests and wetlands have a great potential to support adaptation to climate change and are the foundation of sustainable livelihoods. Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) can help to protect and maintain healthy ecosystems providing resilience against the impacts of climate change. This paper explores the role of EbA in reconciling socio-economic development with the conservation and restoration of nature in Lake Victoria Basin, Kenya, East Africa. Using selected ecosystems in the Lake region, the paper identifies key EbA approaches and explores trade-offs and synergies at spatial and temporal scales and between different stakeholders. The research methods used for this study include site visits, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, participatory workshops and literature reviews. An analytical framework is applied to advance the understanding of EbA approaches and how they lead to synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services provision at spatial and temporal scales and multiple stakeholders. Our results show that EbA approaches such as ecosystem restoration have the potential to generate multiple adaptation benefits as well as synergies and trade-offs occurring at different temporal and spatial scales and affecting various stakeholder groups. Our paper underscores the need to identify EbA trade-offs and synergies and to explore the ways in which they are distributed in space and time and between different stakeholders to design better environmental and development programmes.

森林和湿地等健康的生态系统在支持适应气候变化方面具有巨大潜力，是可持续生计的基础。基于生态系统的适应 (EbA) 有助于保护和维持健康的生态系统，从而提供抵御气候变化影响的能力。本文探讨了 EbA 在协调东非肯尼亚维多利亚湖盆地的社会经济发展与自然保护和恢复方面的作用。本文使用湖区选定的生态系统，确定了关键的 EbA 方法，并探讨了空间和时间尺度以及不同利益相关者之间的权衡和协同作用。本研究使用的研究方法包括实地考察、关键知情人访谈、焦点小组讨论、参与式研讨会和文献综述。应用分析框架来促进对 EbA 方法的理解，以及它们如何导致空间和时间尺度上的生态系统服务提供与多个利益相关者之间的协同作用和权衡。我们的研究结果表明，生态系统恢复等 EbA 方法有可能产生多种适应效益以及在不同时空尺度上发生的协同作用和权衡，并影响各种利益相关者群体。我们的论文强调需要确定 EbA 的权衡和协同作用，并探索它们在空间和时间上以及在不同利益相关者之间的分布方式，以设计更好的环境和发展计划。