DRIVING FINANCING FOR CONSERVATION IN SOUTH AFRICA’S CRITICAL LANDSCAPES

The Sustainable Landscape Finance Coalition, a partnership between WWF South Africa and Wilderness Foundation Africa, implements a four-stage 'Finance Solution Approach©' to develop innovative funding for conservation. Key achievements include the scaling of the Section 37D biodiversity tax incentive (projected to reach R1.4 billion by 2026), the launch of the Green Outcomes Fund for green SMMEs, and the investigation of carbon payments and green bonds. The Coalition operates through a Council of decision-makers and an Innovation Hub to mainstream sustainable finance across South African landscapes.

• The Sustainable Landscape Finance Coalition was established to address the global and regional underspend on environmental efforts, with two primary goals: hosting a cohesive landscape finance sector in South Africa and across Africa, and developing innovative sustainable finance mechanisms. The Coalition estimates that its on-the-ground incubation and implementation of new finance solutions could have a value between USD 98 million (R1.4 billion) and USD 133 million (R1.9 billion) over the next 10 years.
• The Coalition utilizes a proprietary four-stage 'Finance Solution Approach©' to ensure the viability of conservation finance interventions before they are scaled. This process moves from Stage 1 (Incubation) to investigate concepts with experts, Stage 2 (Strategic Development) to create road maps and feasibility studies, Stage 3 (Piloting) to test practical implementation, and Stage 4 (Scalability) to mainstream successful pilots across other landscapes.
• Section 37D of the Income Tax Act serves as South Africa's first biodiversity tax incentive, providing tax deductions for private and communal landowners who declare protected areas. Between the 2016 and 2020 tax years, this mechanism released approximately R200 million into privately and communally owned protected areas, with projections suggesting it could reach R1.4 billion by 2026.
• The Coalition has launched six Finance Solution Incubators to investigate specific mechanisms: Biodiversity Management Agreement (BMA) tax incentives, biodiversity offsets, carbon payments, green economy bankable projects, municipal property rates, and debt instruments. The BMA tax incentive incubator specifically targets the conservation of threatened species such as rhino and lion by unlocking section 37C(1) of the Income Tax Act.
• The Green Outcomes Fund (GOF), launched in January 2020, is a structure designed to stimulate the South African green economy by incentivizing fund managers to invest in green Small, Medium, and Micro-sized Enterprises (SMMEs). It uses a matched concessional funding model through a partnership between National Treasury’s Jobs Fund and GreenCape to create a market for verified green outcomes.
• The Coalition is addressing the financial sustainability of protected areas through several targeted interventions, including a feasibility study on debt-finance instruments (such as green bonds) for South African National Parks (SANParks) and efforts to standardize municipal property rates rebates and exclusions for nature reserves under the Municipal Property Rates Act.
• The Coalition is supporting the development of a sustainable finance strategy for the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA) Secretariat through the USAID Resilient Waters Program. This effort aims to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the Secretariat for the three-country transboundary initiative.

APA

Stevens, C., van Wyk, E., & Maduray, C. (2021). DRIVING FINANCING FOR CONSERVATION IN SOUTH AFRICA’S CRITICAL LANDSCAPES. WWF South Africa. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/the_sustainable_landscape_finance_coalition_report.pdf

Chicago

Stevens, Candice, Ellané van Wyk, and Cerin Maduray. DRIVING FINANCING FOR CONSERVATION IN SOUTH AFRICA’S CRITICAL LANDSCAPES. WWF South Africa, 2021. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/the_sustainable_landscape_finance_coalition_report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Stevens |first1=Candice |last2=van Wyk |first2=Ellané |last3=Maduray |first3=Cerin |title=DRIVING FINANCING FOR CONSERVATION IN SOUTH AFRICA’S CRITICAL LANDSCAPES |publisher=WWF South Africa |date=2021 |url=https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/the_sustainable_landscape_finance_coalition_report.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stevens2021driving, author = {Stevens, Candice and van Wyk, Ellané and Maduray, Cerin}, title = {{DRIVING FINANCING FOR CONSERVATION IN SOUTH AFRICA’S CRITICAL LANDSCAPES}}, institution = {WWF South Africa}, year = {2021}, url = {https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/the_sustainable_landscape_finance_coalition_report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }