JANSENVILLE – A major environmental restoration project outside Jansenville in the Sarah Baartman District is set to receive backing from global technology company Amazon, which says the initiative will restore more than 50,000 hectares of degraded land while creating an estimated 11,000 jobs by 2030.

In a media statement announcing the investment, Amazon described the initiative as “one of the world’s largest carbon removal projects”, stating it would involve the planting of 180 million spekboom shrubs across the Eastern Cape to restore the region’s Albany thicket ecosystem.

According to the company, it will purchase 1.95 million tonnes of nature-based carbon removal credits generated by the project over more than a decade, providing long-term financial support for the restoration programme.

Amazon said its investment would expand an existing restoration project that has been underway since April 2024. The first phase has already seen 30 million spekboom cuttings planted across 10,000 hectares, with the latest investment expected to add more than 50,000 hectares to the programme.

The company said the project is expected to inject more than US$500 million into surrounding communities through wages, procurement, landowner payments and community investment, while providing training opportunities for local businesses involved in ecological restoration.

According to the statement, the indigenous spekboom plant was selected because it is well suited to the Eastern Cape’s climate and has the ability to capture significant amounts of carbon dioxide while improving soil health and restoring degraded landscapes.

Amazon said scientific research has found that spekboom can remove carbon from the atmosphere at rates comparable to young tropical forests. As the plants mature, they help restore soil moisture and create conditions that allow native grasses, shrubs and trees to return, supporting the recovery of wildlife.

The company added that the project area is home to 165 recorded plant and animal species, including several regarded as vulnerable.

Amazon chief sustainability officer Kara Hurst said the restoration programme was intended to deliver both environmental and economic benefits.

“This is a story about nature, community, ingenuity, and scale,” said Hurst.

“Spekboom is a natural wonder, but it can’t heal the land without help from the people who call the Eastern Cape home. This project will restore the ecosystem and create jobs – a model for how nature-based solutions can enable both climate action and economic development.”

Amazon said its long-term commitment to purchasing carbon removal credits enabled the World Bank to launch a Spekboom Outcome Bond, providing investors with confidence that there would be a future buyer for the project’s carbon credits.

The company said the credits would meet internationally recognised standards for nature-based carbon removal, including the ABACUS label and Climate, Community & Biodiversity certification.

According to Amazon, the restoration project has received a pre-issuance “AA.pre” rating from independent carbon ratings agency BeZero Carbon, placing it among the highest-rated afforestation, reforestation and revegetation projects globally.

The investment forms part of Amazon’s Climate Pledge, under which the company aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across its operations by 2040.

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