Seen from the worldviews of cultural traditions in the South Pacific, nature-based solutions (NbS) to climate change are inseparable from community-based solutions for climate change adaptation. This view is consistent with anticipation theory and resilience theory. Anticipation theory emphasizes an intrinsic ethical dimension to how humans interact with the environment, NbS included. Given the disproportionate negative effects of climate change on South Pacific nations, an ethical dimension demands that NbS in the South Pacific are concerned with adaptation to climate change as well as mitigation to climate change. Cultural traditions in the South Pacific facilitate embeddedness in both natural and spiritual realities, which provide an appropriate ethical orientation to frame a strong-NbS that focuses on enhancing well-being through climate change adaptation as well as mitigation. Resilience theory provides insights into the scales at which anticipation and adaptation are required to do so. A type of anticipation system, soft systems methodology (SSM), has been nested to incorporate the multiple scales. The resulting tri-SSM provides a regenerative kernel for a strong-NbS. Examples of tri-SSM processes are given from projects in two South Pacific nations, Kiribati and Fiji. Lessons learned include how to engage with communities to support their climate change adaptations through the use of scientific knowledge and how to facilitate collaboration between institutions to develop resilient integrated strong-NbS. It was also learned that it is at the scale of governance that NbS is being most constrained, due to postcolonial trauma and neo-colonial expectations for economic growth. However, research, education, and exemplars of strong-NbS established as catalysts by civil society organizations (CSOs) prepare for the emergence of well-being to transform the societies of these South Pacific island nations.