Restoring Land, Curbing Carbon, Creating Jobs: a 100,000-Hectare Project

Over 100,000 hectares of native succulent land in South Africa is expected to be restored.

“Carbon markets have been particularly effective at deploying private capital to reduce harmful emissions through forest conservation, directly benefiting local actors on the ground,” says a spokesperson for a South-east Asia Climate and Nature-based Solutions Coalition.

Over five million hectares of South Africa’s Eastern Cape were historically covered in dense shrublands with lots of spekboom, a carbon-dioxide-absorbing succulent. Unfortunately, decades of farming and overgrazing led to a loss of nearly 80 per cent of the thick vegetation that once covered the area. Imperative Global is currently leading a project to restore over 100,000 hectares – which will ultimately remove an expected 30 million tons of carbon dioxide within 40 years. Moreover, the massive project will also ensure the creation of about 1,000 jobs in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces.