Amazon Carbon Project to Restore 50,000 Hectares in South Africa’s Eastern Cape

Over the next decade, Amazon will purchase 1.95 million tonnes of carbon-removal credits from the project. The agreement underpins a World Bank-backed outcome bond and a large-scale employment programme in one of South Africa’s driest and economically challenged regions.

From restoration pilot to large-scale carbon asset

Amazon has signed a long-term offtake agreement for 1.95 million tonnes of nature-based carbon-removal credits generated through the restoration of the Eastern Cape’s Albany Thicket ecosystem.

The deal is among the largest private-sector commitments to nature restoration in South Africa and forms part of Amazon’s broader objective of reaching net-zero emissions by 2040 under The Climate Pledge.

The project centres on spekboom, a resilient succulent indigenous to the Eastern Cape’s semi-arid environment. Spekboom is widely recognised for its ability to capture carbon, restore soil health and rehabilitate degraded landscapes.

The first phase of the programme began in April 2024, with approximately 30 million spekboom cuttings planted across 10,000 hectares of degraded land. As the vegetation matures, it improves soil quality, lowers surface temperatures and creates conditions for native grasses, shrubs and trees to recover. The Albany Thicket ecosystem supports at least 165 identified plant and animal species.

Backed by Amazon’s long-term purchase commitment, the restoration programme is expected to expand to more than 50,000 hectares by 2028, involving the planting of around 180 million spekboom shrubs. This would make it one of the world’s largest nature-based carbon removal initiatives.

The carbon credits are being developed under internationally recognised standards, including ABACUS and Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) certification frameworks, which are increasingly viewed by investors as quality benchmarks in voluntary carbon markets.

Carbon finance meets rural development

The World Bank has introduced a Spekboom Outcome Bond linked to the project. Amazon’s offtake commitment provides investors with greater confidence in future demand and pricing for the carbon credits generated by the programme.

The structure connects fixed-income capital with measurable environmental outcomes and reflects the growing sophistication of voluntary carbon markets, which are expected to expand significantly over the coming decade.

Beyond carbon metrics, the project is designed as an economic development initiative for the Eastern Cape.

By 2030, the programme is expected to create around 11,000 jobs across planting, maintenance, environmental monitoring and related business services. Many of these positions will be created in communities with limited formal employment opportunities, providing a meaningful source of income in a drought-prone region.

Amazon estimates that more than US$500 million will flow into local communities over the life of the programme through wages, local procurement, landowner payments and targeted community investments.

The project is also intended to build local ecological restoration capabilities by developing companies that can support similar initiatives elsewhere in South Africa and across Africa. This capacity building is particularly relevant for institutional investors seeking scalable exposure to nature-based solutions, where execution risk and monitoring challenges often constrain investment opportunities.

The Eastern Cape initiative

For Amazon, the Eastern Cape initiative reflects a preference for high-integrity removal credits linked to measurable landscape restoration rather than solely emissions avoidance projects. The transaction also aligns with the company’s broader efforts to expand access to high-quality carbon credits through its Sustainability Exchange platform.

For investors, the combination of a World Bank-supported outcome bond, internationally recognised certification standards and a long-term corporate offtake agreement offers a more attractive risk-return profile than many earlier-generation offset projects.

The initiative may also provide a blueprint for future climate finance structures, in which anchor buyers secure long-term carbon supply agreements that enable project developers to raise lower-cost capital and scale restoration efforts more rapidly.

As voluntary carbon markets continue to mature, the Eastern Cape spekboom project will be closely watched as a potential model for other degraded landscapes across Africa, linking climate objectives with ecosystem restoration, employment creation and rural economic development at scale.

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