The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) recently allocated R33 million over three years to the Wildlands Conservation Trust, to implement an environmentally beneficial greening project, through the Natural Resource Management Land User Incentives Programme.
The vision of this programme is underwritten by two complimentary objectives. The first is to restore a total of 2 160 hacters of degraded land across five District Municipalities (uMgungundlovu, uThukela, uMkhanyakude, uThungulu and eHlanzini) and 2 provinces (KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga) through the planting of 2 700 000 indigenous trees (average of 900 000 trees planted every year for three years) and related restoration activities.
The second objective is focused on stewardship and improved management of over 50 000 hacters in the corridor separating the Royal Natal and Cathedral Peak Reserves, which are instrumental in effectively setting up a community carbon sequestration model (i.e. climate change mitigation) focussing on grassland soil carbon. Land interventions include donga rehabilitation, burning regimes and improved grazing practices.
It is estimated that each hectare restored will sequester approximately 3 tCO2e per annum, which in plain terms means for every hectare of trees planted we will be removing three tons of carbon from the atmosphere. This Carbon (Carbon Credits) will be traded through the Trust’s existing Corporate network for a minimum of R100 per ton, allowing for annuity income to the communities of R 300 per ha. The restoration work will thus support a ‘Payment for Ecosystems Services’ scheme that will provide a sustainable source of income and livelihood support to poor communities.
Secondly, a community soil carbon initiative will be piloted in the Mweni and Mazizi communities living adjacent to the Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site. Through restoration activities, stewardship interventions and the development of a Carbon Baseline, a source of annuity income will be created for these communities through an Ecosystem Services Lease Agreement based on the soil carbon that can be traded though Wildlands’ existing corporate network.
In addition to its ecological impact, the project will create 246 green jobs and a total of 186 960 person days during implementation, and, very importantly, also create a sustainable source of annuity income to the participating communities through trade in carbon stock.
“The primary ecosystem service which this project will provide will be the sequestration of Carbon, i.e. climate change mitigation,” comments Project Manager Fezeka Mbele. “Secondary services will be the restoration of biodiversity, climate change adaptation and watershed services. Wildlands also has an excellent track-record in restoration activities that support local livelihoods and sustainable development, and this programme will also result in community upliftment,” says Mbele.
The Natural Resource Management Land User Incentives Programme will target marginalised communities and the poorest and most desperate persons within communities as project beneficiaries. These persons will be provided with decent jobs as well as training and capacity building opportunities that will enable them to escape the poverty cycle they are currently trapped in. This will be done through dedicated Enterprise Development and related skills development training.
“DEA and Wildlands are excited about the huge environmental and economic investment they are set to make over the next three years, and with measurement models in place the success of the programme will be monitored and reported on,” said Dr Guy Preston, Deputy Director – General: Environmental Programmes.
For further information contact:
Zolile Nqayi
Tel: 021 819 2423
Cell: 082 898 6483
