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KwaZulu-Natal Sustainable Landscapes Program Launched to Enhance Social and Environmental Resilience
The KwaZulu-Natal Sustainable Landscapes Program (KZNSLP) has been launched to promote sustainable land management practices and enhance ecological resilience across one of Southern Africa’s most ecologically and culturally significant regions.
Spread across the north-eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, this large-scale, landscape-level nature-based solutions project is advancing practices such as rotational grazing and enhanced fire management, critical for restoring degraded land, improving rural livelihoods, and safeguarding biodiversity. These activities aim to boost productivity, restore rangeland health, and enhance ecosystem services, while aiming to prevent further habitat loss.
The Program, when implemented across the full project area identified of ±800 000ha aims to support the co-management of parks in need of additional funding and secure community involvement in more sustainable land management practices that contribute to community resilience. It aims to provide direct support to up to (~191,000 people), creating up to 2,500 indirect jobs. During project implementation of rotational grazing and improved fire management on communal grazing lands, monitoring activities and Protected Area management, the project is expected to create up to 170 direct and indirect jobs. Landowners and the project will also receive majority of gross project revenue once carbon credits have been validated and issued.
The KZNSLP is driven by public benefit corporation, Sayari Earth, partnering with Tembe Traditional Authority, WILDTRUST, Peace Parks Foundation, and Conservation Outcomes,with catalytic start-up support from Rio Tinto. In addition, the Program is also collaborating with government partners like Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife. This partnership underscores a shared commitment to nature protection and restoration, climate resilience and sustainable development for local communities.
The Program follows on from the previously announced multi-party management agreement on Tembe Elephant Park, to strengthen conservation efforts in the Lubombo transboundary landscape between Tembe Elephant Park on the South African side, and Maputo National Park to the north, in Mozambique.
The current pilot of 140 000ha in phase 1 covers selected areas near Tembe in northern KwaZulu-Natal, with the capacity to scale up to of sustainably managed land across 11 municipalities in the province where extensive communal beef farming occurs.
The project is listed on the Verra Registry under Project ID 5703 and uses the latest version of Verra’s VM0032 and VM0042 methodologies.
Why This Matters
Agriculture, rangeland management, and biodiversity conservation remain underfunded parts of the climate solution, despite food systems accounting for nearly a third of human-caused emissions. Proven approaches like improved grazing systems, rangeland recovery, and fire management can boost productivity, restore degraded land, and enhance ecosystem services, all without further habitat loss.
The addition of biochar innovation further strengthens the project’s potential, combining traditional landscape management with cutting-edge carbon removal science. By integrating these complementary approaches under a new methodological framework, the KZNSLP demonstrates how protected areas can actively participate in, and benefit from, the carbon economy.
Together, these approaches show how climate finance can support both people and planet, advancing resilience in one of Southern Africa’s most ecologically and culturally significant regions.
Partner Perspectives
Inkosi Tembe (Traditional Leader, Tembe Community): “I appreciate the transparent and respectful way Sayari Earth and its partners have engaged with the Tembe Traditional Authority throughout this process, and I trust that the implementation of this project, in alignment with applicable laws and Verra/CCB requirements, will bring meaningful environmental and socio-economic benefits to our people.”
Dr. Roelie Kloppers (CEO, WILDTRUST): “We are thrilled with the significant progress of the KwaZulu-Natal Sustainable Landscape Program, particularly its official listing on the Verra registry. This achievement is a major milestone that affirms the credibility of our work and positions the project to unlock sustainable finance for conservation and community development in northern KwaZulu-Natal. It reflects the power of collaboration and innovation in building a future where people and nature thrive together.”
Colin Porteous (CIO, PPF) – “This milestone shows how the right partnerships can turn conservation into a shared investment in people and the planet. By supporting better land use and restoring nature, we’re proving that conservation finance can deliver real value for communities while tackling climate change.”
Chris Galliers (Manager, Conservation Outcomes) – “In Northern KwaZulu-Natal, and part of the Maputo-Pondoland-Albany hotspot, nature-positive investments are urgently needed to safeguard its rich natural and cultural heritage, while delivering meaningful climate and community benefits. The KZNSLP has deepened our understanding of the landscape and is really working to unlock alternative funding for protected and conserved areas. By strengthening management across connecting corridors, it is building a powerful platform for long-term resilience.”
Dr. Hassan Sachedina (CEO, Sayari Earth): “The KZNSLP is an ecosystem scale community-based carbon removals project that integrates different methodologies to solve social and environmental problems in a globally important biodiversity hotspot. We are honoured to be working alongside the Tembe Community and our partners using world class social and carbon science tools and innovations to bring high quality credits to domestic and global markets.”
These perspectives highlight the collaborative strength of the KZNSLP, underscoring how partnerships between local communities, NGOs, and carbon market innovators are driving forward a model with global relevance.
About Sayari Earth
Sayari Earth is an African public benefit corporation with the mission to partner with people to sustain life on planet Earth. We design and build nature-based carbon removal projects using technology and pragmatic field-oriented partnerships. We focus on community-based ecosystem engineering in global biodiversity strongholds integrating conservation with regenerative agriculture.
About Peace Parks Foundation
Founded by President Nelson Mandela, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Dr Anton Rupert in 1997 with a mandate to rewild southern Africa, Peace Parks Foundation set out on a mission that became Africa’s largest nature conservation initiative. With an initial focus on bringing Heads of State together to create transboundary landscapes, Peace Parks’ early successes saw the creation of 10 transfrontier conservation areas. This placed an additional 11.3 million hectares of land under conservation.
Peace Parks has evolved over the past 27 years, continuously adapting our role to maximise impact, drawing on valuable lessons learned along the way. We engage in long-term co-management agreements with communities and governments, ensuring local ownership and lasting capacity development, making sure communities are at the heart of decision-making.
About WILDTRUST
WILDTRUST (registered as the Wildlands Conservation Trust – IT No.4329/1991/PMB) is a South African Non-Profit, Non-Government and Public Welfare Organisation, established in 2004 through the merger of two regional Trusts. It pursues the realisation of its vision of “A Thriving and Resilient World” through two core programs: WILDLANDS and WILDOCEANS.
WILDLANDS focuses on protecting and restoring terrestrial biodiversity and wildlife, empowering and uplifting communities, while WILDOCEANS protects and restores marine and coastal biodiversity while building resilience for coastal communities.
Both programs aim to enhance sustainability and impact through future leader development, science and knowledge generation, support to decision-makers and management authorities, community development and livelihoods support, awareness and communication, and advocacy and campaigning.
WILDTRUST respects the inter-connectedness of all things and is working to bring humankind and nature back into balance by reducing the impact of humanity, while providing opportunities for people and nature to thrive.
WILDTRUST reconnects, regenerates, restores, and empowers people and planet.
About Conservation Outcomes
Conservation Outcomes is a non-profit organisation that supports the development and management of land for biodiversity conservation, outside of traditional state-protected areas. Our mission is rooted in the belief that conservation can drive inclusive economic growth, especially in historically underserved rural areas. We work with private and communal landowners to establish new protected areas, conserve ecological integrity, and build sustainable livelihoods through biodiversity-based economic opportunities.
https://www.conservation-outcomes.org/
Here’s to a new chapter, and to the Swarm that makes it all possible. Rolling forward, together.
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