Amazon struck a multi-year deal to acquire nearly 2m tonnes of carbon removal credits from a South Africa-based large-scale ecosystem restoration project – one of the company's biggest investments in nature-based climate solutions. The agreement should boost one of the largest carbon removal programs in the world and provide environmental restoration and economic benefits to local communities.

The deal is focused on the massive planting of spekboom, a native South African succulent known for its ability to sequester carbon dioxide from the air and to rehabilitate degraded ecosystems. The investment will allow the project to expand considerably in the next few years, "enhancing the project's environmental footprint and community development work," Amazon said.

More than 50,000 hectares to be restored.

The enlarged project will include planting more than 50,000 hectares of existing degraded land with an estimated 180 million spekboom shrubs. The project is designed to restore degraded landscapes and to enhance natural carbon capture and storage on the landscape.

The restoration program will be much more than just about carbon sequestration, according to Amazon. Spekboom helps in the regeneration of the ecosystem by benefiting the soil, storing water in the soil and providing good conditions for native vegetation and wildlife to return. These ecosystem enhancements are anticipated to boost biodiversity and improve the ecological resistance of the landscape to climate change.

The expansion is a significant step from the project's current stage, which is planting the shrubs over about 10,000 ha. The extra funding will enable the project to expand fivefold, and up to 180 million of the shrubs will be planted by the end of 2028, Amazon said.

Long-Term Carbon Credit Purchase

Under the terms of the deal, Amazon will buy 1.95 million tonnes of carbon credits from the project which are projected to be produced over more than a decade. Carbon removal credits are verified carbon dioxide removals from the atmosphere from environmental projects approved by the market.

The long-term purchasing arrangement helps developers to increase restoration efforts with financial certainty and to ensure carbon removal results are monitored and verified over the life of the project.

Businesses are increasingly taking an interest in carbon removal projects that involve the nature based approach and investing in verified carbon removal to complement their direct emissions reduction strategies. They tend to be forest, wetlands or other ecosystem restoration projects with the primary purpose of sequestration of carbon in the atmosphere, but with other environmental and social goals.

Spekboom is recognised for Carbon Storage and Ecosystem Recovery.

Spekboom is an Amazon highlight for its environmental traits, especially in terms of carbon capture. Studies have shown that mature spekboom restoration areas can sequester carbon under appropriate circumstances to the same extent as young tropical forests.

The plant also has significant benefits in regards to the improvement of degraded landscapes beyond carbon storage. It has a dense growth habit, which helps to prevent soil erosion, promotes greater water holding capacity, and promotes regeneration of other native species through microclimates. These enhancements over time assist in broader ecosystem recovery and improve the habitat for local biodiversity over time.

The project is thus a multi-faceted environmental challenge, which is being tackled by a single landscape restoration programme by mitigating climate change while at the same time restoring ecological services.

The project is expected to provide substantial economic benefits to the local community.

The restoration project is also expected to provide significant economic benefits to the surrounding community, in addition to its environmental goals.

Amazon estimates the expanded project will add around 11,000 jobs in implementation and over the long term. Job prospects are anticipated in seedling production, planting activities, land management and sustainable monitoring.

The firm also calculates that over the course of the project, over US$500 million will be transferred to local communities via wages, procurement, payments to landowners and other community investments.

The social benefits of these projects have been increasingly highlighted by those that support the nature-based approach to restoration, which include the potential of generating rural jobs, community resilience and local economic development as part of climate action.

Spekboom Outcome Bond backs investments in the world.

Amazon also helped to kick off the World Bank's Spekboom Outcome Bond in recent times, and it is this purchase agreement that was pivotal, the company said.

The company said a long-term buyer already signed up to buy future carbon removal credits offered added investors' confidence in the financing mechanism. Such arrangements aim to encourage private investment in the environmental restoration process by tying financial returns to environmental outcomes.

The outcome bond is another financing mechanism designed to scale up the nature-based climate interventions and to lower the risk of investments in the initial phase of implementation.

Be Available is now offering credits via Amazon’s Carbon Credit service.

Additionally, Amazon said companies will also be able to access carbon credits produced by the project via its carbon credit service, if they qualify.

It was launched in 2025 and expanded this year, giving companies in Amazon's value chain access to carbon neutralisation and carbon inset credits eligible for the company's standards. The initiative is part of Amazon's strategy to promote high-quality carbon removal projects, and to drive greater uptake of ticked-off climate solutions in the Amazon business chain.

Climate and Community Benefits are provided in the following manner:

“The project is an example of how nature restoration can create environmental and economic results at the same time,” said Amazon Chief Sustainability Officer Kara Hurst in a press release.

She explained that the initiative would bring ecosystems back into the way business is done and provide employment opportunities, and that these are just examples of the ways in which NbS can support climate action and local economic development.

The deal highlights the increasing importance of long-term private-sector investment in the restoration of ecosystems, which aims to repair the environment and restore biodiversity while also providing opportunities for community development.