{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","contentId":"0000019f-176f-df07-a7bf-5f6f8a8a0000","url":"https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/sustainability/amazon-south-africa-land-restoration","headline":"Amazon invests in one of the world’s largest carbon removal projects, creating 11,000 jobs and restoring nature","description":"The project will see 180 million spekboom shrubs planted in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, bringing back the area’s thriving habitats.","datePublished":"2026-06-30T11:45:59.005Z","dateModified":"2026-06-30T11:45:59.005Z","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charles Clark","url":"https://www.aboutamazon.com/author/charles-clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/d036ff2/2147483647/strip/true/crop/400x400+0+0/resize/84x84!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F27%2Fc8%2F3fa8c9114ac59c2ba60218f50bdd%2Fdownload-2.png","width":"84","height":"84"}}],"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/66eb583/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1688x1125+156+0/resize/300x200!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2Fb1%2Fb8%2Fb20eae0946548c6f80ee017eccdb%2Fspekboom-5.jpg","width":"300","height":"200"},"articleBody":"![Aerial view of multiple greenhouse tunnels arranged in rows on agricultural land in an arid rural landscape\n](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/66eb583/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1688x1125+156+0/resize/300x200!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2Fb1%2Fb8%2Fb20eae0946548c6f80ee017eccdb%2Fspekboom-5.jpg)\n\n# Amazon invests in one of the world’s largest carbon removal projects, creating 11,000 jobs and restoring nature\n\n*The project will see 180 million spekboom shrubs planted in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, bringing back the area’s thriving habitats.*\n\n---\n\n## Key takeaways\n\n- Millions of spekboom plants, known for their ability to absorb carbon, will be grown on previously degraded land.\n- Amazon’s investment will help transform an area twice the size of the city of Seattle.\n- The project will create 11,000 jobs and generate more than $500 million in economic value locally.\n- Amazon will buy [1.95 million tonnes of](https://sustainabilityexchange.amazon.com/focus-areas/carbon-neutralization/approach/nature-based-carbon-dioxide-removal/chapter-1) high-quality nature-based carbon removal credits generated by the project.\n\n---\n\nThe hills in South Africa’s Eastern Cape are connected to the families who live there. Farmers grow their crops in the soil while animals graze on the vegetation. But over time, the Albany thicket covering large parts of the landscape has disappeared. Years of land use have left it struggling to support nature and the communities that depend on it.\n\nAmazon has announced it is investing in one of the world’s largest nature-based carbon removal programs, helping to bring an area more than twice the size of Seattle back to life.\n\n![Large-scale solar farm set against rugged mountain scenery](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/35e0427/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1899x1266+176+0/resize/300x200!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2Fdd%2Fab%2F0a7681a7489791031a12caccec72%2Fcfe-blog-hero-5-1.jpg)\n\n- [How Amazon is preparing for the energy needs of the future](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/sustainability/amazon-renewable-energy-updates)\n\nThe ambition of the program is breathtaking. Amazon’s support will enable more than 50,000 hectares of exhausted land to be restored over the coming years, largely thanks to a remarkable plant called spekboom.\n\nSpekboom is a hardy succulent that can help turn dusty, dry, degraded land back into thriving habitats and help tackle climate change at the same time.\n\nScientists have found that spekboom can remove carbon from the atmosphere at rates comparable to young tropical forests. What’s more, the plant transforms the ground around it. By restoring moisture and improving soil health, it creates the conditions for native grasses, shrubs, and trees to return—followed by birds, insects, and mammals that haven't thrived there for decades.\n\n![Workers planting spekboom shrubs in rows inside a modern greenhouse facility](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/769fc00/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1125+0+0/resize/767x431!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2Fc9%2Fd3%2F0d20a36f4cb8b138fc4b9deb3dc0%2Fspekboom-3.jpg)\n\n![Person removing young plants from a nursery tray with healthy root systems visible](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/502c85d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1600x900+0+0/resize/767x431!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F55%2F2e%2F4c0cece84db6ad22b72a61d0e513%2Famazon-music-inline-1600x900-20.jpg)\n\nBy the end of 2028, 180 million spekboom cuttings will be planted across the landscape, bringing new life to the Albany thicket, a distinctive ecosystem that has been in decline for decades.\n\nBut this isn't simply a story about plants. It's about people too.\n\nThe Amazon-backed restoration program is expected to [create around 11,000 jobs](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/tag/job-creation-and-investment) by 2030 in one of South Africa's most economically disadvantaged regions, while training local businesses in ecological restoration and injecting more than $500 million into surrounding communities through wages, procurement, landowner payments, and community investment.\n\n![carbon-free energy at Amazon, a photo of a solar farm with rows of panels alongside agricultural fields and a tractor](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/589644b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1688x1125+156+0/resize/300x200!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F51%2F8e%2F21cffbb44d258e78a257e79a3ab9%2Fabout-amazon-hero-carbon-free-energy-projects-amazon.jpg)\n\n- [Amazon continues to be one of the world’s leading corporate purchasers of carbon-free energy](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/sustainability/amazon-leading-corporate-carbon-free-energy-purchaser)\n\n## Why spekboom is used in land restoration\n\nUnlike many restoration projects that rely on planting trees, this one centers on a native succulent that evolved specifically for the Eastern Cape's harsh climate.\n\nKnown locally as elephant bush because elephants browse its leaves, spekboom flourishes where many other plants struggle. It grows from simple cuttings placed directly into the soil, making restoration practical at enormous scale.\n\nAs the plants mature, they gradually cool the landscape, improve depleted soils, and create conditions for entire ecosystems to recover naturally. Today, the project area is home to 165 recorded plant and animal species, including several considered vulnerable by conservationists.\n\n![Rows of seedling trays with young spekboom plants growing in a commercial greenhouse facility](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/479aa4d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1600x900+0+0/resize/767x431!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F52%2F16%2Fa61f21d84c2fbdd3f589ba5298b2%2Famazon-music-inline-1600x900-21.jpg)\n\nIts noteworthy ecological impact has earned international recognition, with the United Nations naming spekboom restoration one of its World Restoration Flagship initiatives.\n\n## How Amazon is supporting the restoration program\n\nLarge-scale restoration requires more than remarkable plants—it also requires long-term investment.\n\nAmazon has committed to purchase 1.95 million tons of carbon removal credits generated by the project over more than a decade, one of the largest private-sector commitments to nature restoration in South Africa's history.\n\nThat long-term commitment enabled the World Bank to launch an innovative Spekboom Outcome Bond, giving investors the confidence there would already be a buyer for the project's future carbon credits. These credits are available for qualified companies to purchase through [Amazon's carbon credit service](https://sustainabilityexchange.amazon.com/credits).\n\n![Carbon Credits](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/f8e8593/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1647x1098+77+0/resize/300x200!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F5f%2Fa3%2F608670b5429db7f29db2bed8db58%2Faboutamazon-carboncreditsexplainer-balterra-01-hero.jpg)\n\n- [How Amazon approaches carbon credits, a key tool in the fight against climate change](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/sustainability/amazon-carbon-credit-decarbonization-sustainability)\n\nThe credits will meet some of the world's highest standards for nature-based carbon removal, carrying both the ABACUS label and the Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) certification.\n\n“This is a story about nature, community, ingenuity, and scale,” said Kara Hurst, Amazon’s chief sustainability officer, when she visited the project site.\n\n“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.”\n\n![Agricultural workers transplanting seedlings in crates at a greenhouse farm](https://assets.aboutamazon.com/dims4/default/f80f70c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1600x900+0+0/resize/767x431!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.aboutamazon.com%2F5d%2F8c%2Fb9bc678b41ee9af8778029028463%2Famazon-music-inline-1600x900-22.jpg)\n\nThe project forms part of Amazon's work toward its [Climate Pledge](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/tag/the-climate-pledge) goal to reach net-zero carbon across its operations by 2040.\n\n## A proven track record\n\nThe project, designed and operated by ecosystem restorers Imperative, is already underway. Phase one—with 30 million plants covering 10,000 hectares—has been in progress since April 2024. More than 50,000 hectares will be added to the project as a result of Amazon’s support.\n\nThe project holds a 'AA.pre' Standalone Rating from BeZeroCarbon—an independent agency that assesses the quality of carbon credits—making it one of the highest-rated afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation (ARR) projects in the world. The 'AA.pre' rating, on a scale from AAA (highest) to D (lowest), indicates a high likelihood that the project's carbon credits represent real, verified carbon dioxide removal.\n\nLearn more about [Amazon’s carbon credit service](https://sustainabilityexchange.amazon.com/credits/segments/restoring-forests?utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=spekboom&utm_source=aboutamazon).\n\nNext, find out how [Amazon’s $100 million Right Now Climate Fund](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/sustainability/right-now-climate-fund) is protecting and restoring nature around the world.","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"About Amazon","url":"https://www.aboutamazon.com","sameAs":["https://x.com/amazonnews","https://www.linkedin.com/company/amazon","https://www.instagram.com/amazonnews"],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://assets.aboutamazon.com/bd/8f/88e7b0314cc2bd05b9de3155a0fe/amazon-news.svg"},"parentOrganization":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Amazon","url":"https://www.amazon.com","sameAs":["https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3884","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_(company)","https://x.com/Amazon"]}}}