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, employs a four-stage 'Finance Solution Approach' to bridge the funding gap for biodiversity and landscape conservation. The Coalition has launched six incubators investigating tools such as biodiversity tax incentives, carbon payments, and green bonds, while scaling existing successes like the Section 37D tax deduction, which is projected to release R1.4 billion into protected areas by 2026.

• The Coalition utilizes a proprietary four-stage 'Finance Solution Approach©' to move from conceptual investigation to large-scale implementation. This process consists of Stage 1: Incubation (expert investigation), Stage 2: Strategic Development (feasibility studies and road maps), Stage 3: Piloting (practical testing in elected landscapes), and Stage 4: Scalability (mainstreaming successful pilots).
• Section 37D of the Income Tax Act serves as South Africa's first biodiversity tax incentive, providing deductions for private and communal landowners who declare protected areas. Between the 2016 and 2020 tax years, it released approximately R200 million, with projections suggesting it will reach R1.4 billion by 2026.
• The Coalition has established 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 successfully identified the viability of using section 37C(1) of the Income Tax Act to support the conservation of threatened species. This has led to a pilot project specifically targeting the management of rhino and lion.
• The Green Outcomes Fund (GOF), launched in January 2020, is a fund-of-funds mechanism designed to stimulate the green economy by incentivizing fund managers to invest in green Small, Medium, and Micro-sized Enterprises (SMMEs) based on verified outcomes.
• The Coalition is investigating the use of debt-finance instruments, specifically green bonds, to help South African National Parks (SANParks) sustainably finance its mandate, particularly after tourism income was devastated by the Covid-19 crisis.
• The Coalition's Innovation Hub serves as a cross-sectoral engagement platform that hosts Knowledge Exchanges, Showcases, and Dialogues to facilitate networking between the finance and environmental sectors.

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} }