Agroforestry: Growing a Sustainable Future

At the heart of the Save the Sand project is our innovative agroforestry initiative, designed to restore the landscape while providing sustainable livelihoods for local communities.

We are planting 2.5 million indigenous agroforestry trees across the Sabie-Sand River Catchment, creating a mosaic of productive, biodiverse landscapes that sequester carbon and support local economies.

Our Approach

Our agroforestry initiative implements diverse systems carefully tailored to the unique characteristics and needs of different land uses within the Sabie-Sand River Catchments.

This targeted approach ensures optimal benefits for both the environment and local communities. By tailoring our agroforestry approaches to these specific land uses, we're creating a diverse, productive, and resilient landscape that benefits both people and nature in the Sabie-Sand River Catchment.

  • In agricultural areas, we're integrating trees with existing crops to create multifunctional landscapes. Our approach includes:

    • Alley Cropping: Planting rows of trees or shrubs (such as Marula or Apple-leaf) between crops, creating alleys for cultivation.

    • Boundary Planting: Establishing tree lines along field borders using species like Acacia nigrescens or Combretum imberbe.

    • Multi-story Systems: Creating vertical layers of vegetation by combining tall trees, shorter trees, shrubs, and ground-level crops. This mimics natural forest structures.

    • We're planting approximately 200 trees per hectare in croplands, carefully selected and positioned to complement existing agricultural activities.

  • Around homes and in community spaces, we're establishing fruit and nut tree gardens. This system focuses on:

    • Shade Provision: Planting large-canopy trees like African Fig or Mango near buildings.

    • Food Security: Incorporating a diverse range of fruit trees (e.g., Citrus species, Avocado) and nut trees (e.g., Macadamia)

    • Medicinal and Cultural Plants: Including indigenous species with traditional uses, such as Marula.

    • Living Fences: Using dense-growing trees and shrubs to create natural boundaries

    • In residential areas, we're planting an average of 50 trees per hectare, balancing the benefits of tree cover with the need for open spaces and existing structures.

  • Tree planting in the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality will significantly enhance climate adaptation by restoring the natural water regulation capacity of the Sabie-Sand catchment.

    The trees will reduce soil erosion, increase groundwater recharge, and regulate stream flows during both floods and droughts—critical for communities already experiencing increasingly erratic rainfall patterns.

    By rebuilding riparian corridors and improving landscape-level water retention, the restored ecosystem will buffer agricultural lands and settlements against climate extremes while creating cooler microclimates that reduce heat stress.

Indigenous and Productive Species

Our tree selection focuses on species that are both ecologically appropriate and economically valuable. Some key species include:

  • Marula (Sclerocarya birrea)

  • African Fig (Ficus sycomorus)

  • Apple-leaf (Philenoptera violacea)

  • Macadamia

  • Mango

  • Avocado

  • Various citrus species

These trees not only contribute to carbon sequestration but also provide fruits, nuts, and other products that can be harvested sustainably, creating new income streams for local communities.

Carbon Credit Methodology

Our project utilizes the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) VM0047 CCB ARR Methodology for Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation (ARR) together with Community, Climate and Biodiversity (CCB) co-benefits.

This cutting-edge methodology allows us to:

  1. Accurately quantify carbon sequestration from our agroforestry activities.

  2. Use a combination of area-based and census-based approaches to monitor tree growth and carbon stocks.

  3. Generate high-quality, verifiable carbon credits that meet international standards.

  4. Deliver extensive co-benefits through our benefit sharing framework focused on capacity building, job creation and increasing household income.

By following the VM0047 CCB methodology, we ensure that our carbon credits are robust, credible, and truly represent holistic climate benefits of through our agroforestry work.

Community Benefit Sharing

Local communities are at the center of our agroforestry efforts. The project operates on a transformative 3 Tier benefit-sharing model where carbon revenue flows directly to local communities.

  • Tier 1 provides annual custodian fees to households stewarding the 2.5 million trees on their land.

  • Tier 2 creates 400+ direct jobs with 98% local hiring, building skills and enterprise capacity across nurseries, planting, and monitoring operations.

  • Tier 3 establishes an Infrastructure Fund for community-wide investments in training centers, irrigation, and climate adaptation.

Built on Free Prior and Informed Consent principles, this isn't extractive carbon finance—it's genuine partnership where the people restoring the land share meaningfully in the value they create, targeting 200% household income increases for participating families.

Environmental Benefits

Beyond carbon sequestration, our agroforestry initiative delivers numerous environmental benefits:

  • Biodiversity restoration: Protection of 111+ threatened species through habitat connectivity and indigenous species planting across 630,000 hectares in a Global Biodiversity Hotspot

  • Water security: Enhanced watershed protection through improved water flow regulation, groundwater recharge, flood attenuation, and reduced sedimentation in the Sabie-Sand river system

  • Soil health: Reduced erosion through riparian buffers and conservation hedgerows; increased soil fertility, moisture retention, and stabilization of riverbanks and agricultural areas

  • Climate regulation: Improved micro-climates through vegetation cover; increased carbon sequestration of 6.6 million tCO₂eq over 40 years

  • Ecosystem services: Restoration of pollination services; creation of wildlife corridors; enhanced habitat for native flora and fauna supporting ecosystem connectivity

  • Agricultural resilience: Reduced pressure on natural forests; improved agricultural productivity through agroforestry systems integrating fruit and nut-bearing indigenous trees

Looking Forward

As we progress towards our goal of 2.5 million trees, we're constantly refining our approaches, learning from our experiences, and scaling up our impact.

Our agroforestry initiative is a cornerstone of the Save the Sand project, demonstrating how nature-based solutions can address climate change, support local economies, and restore degraded landscapes.