NATURE FINANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA

This report by WWF South Africa examines the adoption of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) framework within the South African corporate and financial sectors. It specifically promotes the LEAP (Locate, Evaluate, Assess, and Prepare) approach as a practical methodology for companies to identify nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities, thereby shifting financial flows toward nature-positive outcomes.

• South Africa's economy is heavily dependent on healthy ecosystems, particularly within the agriculture and tourism sectors, meaning ecosystem decline directly threatens economic stability and financial resilience.
• As of early 2026, TNFD adoption in South Africa remains very low, with only four companies—GBSH Consult Group, Raubex Group Limited, Sanlam Limited, and Sibanye-Stillwater—formally committing to the framework. None of these companies had fully aligned their reporting with the TNFD framework by February 2026.
• The LEAP approach (Locate, Evaluate, Assess, and Prepare) is presented as a transformational method for companies to manage nature-related risks. It involves four phases: locating the company's interface with nature, evaluating dependencies and impacts, assessing material risks and opportunities, and preparing responses and reports.
• Several significant barriers hinder the adoption of TNFD in South Africa, including a lack of regulatory pressure, the technical complexity of nature-risk assessment, difficulties in accessing granular ecological data, and a lack of collaboration between competing companies.
• South African financial regulators, including the National Treasury, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), are integrating climate risks into regulations, but nature-positive goals and biodiversity-related disclosures are currently lagging behind climate initiatives.
• The report highlights that nature-related risks are often incorrectly treated as an 'add-on' to climate reporting, whereas they are actually part of the same risk system where climate change accelerates nature loss and ecosystem degradation intensifies climate change.
• In the metals and mining sector, the LEAP approach emphasizes the 'mitigation hierarchy'—avoiding, minimizing, restoring, and offsetting impacts—with a particular focus on water use, waste management, and land use across the full mining life cycle.
• For the food and agriculture sector, the LEAP approach focuses on dependencies such as healthy soil and pollination, and impacts like deforestation and fertilizer use, suggesting a phased approach to manage complex value chains.
• The TNFD framework is designed to be interoperable with other global and local standards, including the IFRS S1 and S2 standards, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and South Africa's King V Report on Corporate Governance.

APA

Küsters, L., Nelson, S., & Rughoonandan, N. P. (2026). NATURE FINANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA. WWF South Africa. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/nature-finance-in-south-africa_final_22apr26--1-_1.pdf

Chicago

Küsters, Lisa, Sandy Nelson, and Noeleen Padayachee Rughoonandan. NATURE FINANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA. WWF South Africa, 2026. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/nature-finance-in-south-africa_final_22apr26--1-_1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Küsters |first1=Lisa |last2=Nelson |first2=Sandy |last3=Rughoonandan |first3=Noeleen Padayachee |title=NATURE FINANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA |publisher=WWF South Africa |date=2026 |url=https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/nature-finance-in-south-africa_final_22apr26--1-_1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ksters2026nature, author = {Küsters, Lisa and Nelson, Sandy and Rughoonandan, Noeleen Padayachee}, title = {{NATURE FINANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA}}, institution = {WWF South Africa}, year = {2026}, url = {https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/nature-finance-in-south-africa_final_22apr26--1-_1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }