South Africa secures $40m grant to enhance nature-based climate resilience for vulnerable communities

Daily Maverick

11 hours ago

A new defence against climate disasters in South Africa is in the pipeline, backed by a $40.1m (more than R700m) grant from the Green Climate Fund to assist in the country's climate change adaptation efforts.
As South Africa battles against climate-intensified disaster risks, the country is now set to bolster its defences with a substantial grant of more than $40-million (over R700-million) from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for an eight-year project that looks to enhance climate resilience for over five million vulnerable South Africans.
This funding supports an eight-year nature-based project to reduce disaster risks, ' Scaling up Ecosystem-based Approaches to managing climate-intensified disaster risks in vulnerable regions of South Africa ', or more easily known as the Eco-DRR project, led by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (Sanbi).
The project will take place across four climate-vulnerable district municipalities in Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West provinces — and will apply to climate change adaptation responses across the country.
Those living in areas most vulnerable to climate change impacts, such as floods, droughts, and wildfires, have suffered immensely in South Africa in recent years, facing a devastating cycle of climate-related disasters that have claimed lives, destroyed homes, and shattered livelihoods.
In provinces like KwaZulu-Natal, catastrophic floods have become terrifyingly frequent. The 2022 floods in Durban resulted in hundreds of deaths, displaced tens of thousands of people as their informal and formal homes were washed away, and crippled essential infrastructure like roads, bridges, and water systems.
This left already impoverished communities isolated, without access to food, schools or employment.
Prolonged and severe droughts, particularly in the Western, Eastern, and Northern Cape, have threatened life and national food security. Water sources have dwindled, leading to critical shortages for both households and agriculture. Subsistence farmers have lost their crops and livestock, often their only source of income and sustenance, while commercial farms have faced massive economic losses, affecting farmworkers and the wider economy.
At the same time, hotter and drier conditions have fuelled an increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires, especially in the Western Cape. These fires have raged through informal and formal settlements built on the urban fringe, leaving thousands homeless.
Beyond the destruction of property, entire communities have faced the trauma of displacement and the health impacts of smoke inhalation.
The country's high levels of inequality mean that the poorest and most marginalised citizens, often living in poorly built housing on unsuitable land, bear the brunt of these impacts.
Without proactive adaptation measures (taking action to prepare for and adjust to the current and projected impacts of climate change), development gains are continuously eroded, and the cycle of poverty is entrenched.
What is the Eco-DRR project?
This is part of what the Eco-DRR project looks to address. It is being managed by Sanbi, in partnership with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) and the South African Local Government Association (Salga), and was officially ratified by the Green Climate Fund board on 1 July 2025 in Papua New Guinea.
It is an eight-year project with an anticipated 20-year impact, aiming to directly benefit about 366,000 people and indirectly reach more than 5.1 million South Africans, particularly those vulnerable to floods, droughts, and wildfires.
Sanbi CEO Shonisani Munzhedzi said: 'The role of biodiversity in South Africa's response to climate change is at the heart of this project.'
Munzhedzi said healthy ecosystems acted as natural buffers against climate extremes, protecting lives, infrastructure and livelihoods — and this project represented a major step forward in climate adaptation financing for South Africa.
The project's core objective is to scale up ecosystem-based approaches to manage climate-intensified disaster risks.
This involves rehabilitating vulnerable catchments, supporting locally led adaptation and natural resource-based livelihoods, improving community-level disaster preparedness and response, and mainstreaming Eco-DRR considerations into asset management and maintenance, and settlement policy and planning.
The biodiversity institute explained that by restoring and protecting critical ecosystems such as catchments, wetlands, and forests, the project would reduce communities' exposure to extreme weather events, enhance water security, and promote sustainable, nature-based livelihoods.
It said the project would also empower local governments and communities through training and resources to lead disaster preparedness and climate adaptation efforts.
Just looking at the Eastern Cape flooding events of June 2025, this is sorely needed, and it's needed at a local, community level to prevent the loss of lives.
The project also seeks to develop the evidence base for Eco-DRR interventions and work with the South African government to implement these practices at scale.
The exact intervention locations where these will be taking place will be determined during the operationalisation phase at the project's start, but so far the proposed project sites have been identified across four districts:
Alfred Nzo District (Umzimvubu and Ntabankulu Local Municipalities) in the Eastern Cape.
Sekhukune District (Makhuduthamaga Local Municipality) in Limpopo.
Ehlanzeni District (Bushbuckridge Local Municipality) in Mpumalanga.
Ngaka Modiri Molema District (Ramotshere Moiloa Municipality) in North West.
Sanbi spokesperson Nontsikelelo Mpulo said that these project sites were identified through vulnerability assessments that combined climate science and stakeholder processes that were supported by the target provinces and district municipalities.
Further site and activity refinement was expected to take place during the early stages of implementation through co-creation processes.
Mpulo said the project would directly benefit people by enhancing their protection from floods, droughts and wildfires through a set of interventions that improved the health of ecosystems and ecological infrastructure, thus boosting their ability to buffer communities from these impacts.
'This will be complemented by activities that improve disaster preparedness and response in the target district municipalities, enabling communities to review and interpret early warning messages timeously,' she said.
This project takes a three-pronged approach to building climate resilience:
On-the-ground action: This looks at integrated landscape management to enhance the resilience of ecological infrastructure and climate-vulnerable communities in the four district municipalities. The goal is to strengthen ecological infrastructure like wetlands and forests, making them and the vulnerable communities that depend on them better able to withstand climate impacts across four district municipalities.
Proactive safety measures: Transforming how communities prepare for and respond to climate-driven disasters. This involves practical steps to reduce the destructive impact of hazards on buildings, infrastructure, and especially on at-risk communities.
S upporting long-term change: Concentrates on creating the right conditions for sustained investment from both government and private companies. This will be achieved by building a stronger evidence base and improving how knowledge about nature-based disaster reduction is shared and used.
In a statement, Dion George, the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, said: 'The increasing frequency of floods, droughts and wildfires poses a serious threat to South Africa's communities, especially those in rural and peri-urban areas.
'This investment will support our efforts to strengthen ecological infrastructure, reduce disaster risk, and build adaptive capacity where it is needed most.'
A strategic advantage in accessing global climate finance
The issue of global climate finance to countries in the Global South remains a hot topic. While South Africa is a significant recipient of international climate funding, particularly through the Just Energy Transition Partnership, there remain several problems.
This relates mainly to most climate finance in the country being loan heavy, insufficient, slow to arrive, and inadequately focused on the profound social adjustments required, raising fears of a transition that could leave the most vulnerable communities behind and deepen the nation's debt.
The primary point of contention is that the majority of the climate finance offered to South Africa, including the initial $8.5-billion for the Just Energy Transition Partnership, consists of a lot of concessional and commercial loans, not grants.
This has raised significant concerns that the transition is being financed by indebting the nation, which could exacerbate fiscal pressure on an already strained economy.
Now Sanbi and the DFFE believe that the institute's accreditation as a Direct Access Entity of the Green Climate Fund, since 2016, gives South Africa a strategic advantage in accessing global climate finance.
What this means is that resources are available to support local priorities and needs, build institutional capacity, and to ensure that climate change adaptation is driven by South Africans, for South Africans.
'This accreditation enables the South African National Biodiversity Institute to ensure that resources are channelled efficiently into projects that address national priorities. As a result, South Africa is better positioned to strengthen institutional capacity, advance climate change adaptation goals, and deliver tangible benefits to communities most affected by climate change,' the institute said in a statement.
The Development Bank of Southern Africa and the institute are the only South African institutions accredited by the Green Climate Fund.
'This is a monumental achievement for South Africa and a testament to the South African National Biodiversity Institute's expertise as a Direct Access Entity to the Green Climate Fund,' said George.
The minister said that as a Direct Access Entity, the institute had shown 'remarkable leadership' in securing this substantial funding, marking a milestone for both it and the nation.
Project proposal development
The Green Climate Fund is the world's largest dedicated climate fund and serves as an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, supporting both the Paris Agreement and the global effort to help developing countries address climate change.
It is funded primarily by voluntary contributions from national governments, with additional support from regional governments and cities. The main contributors are developed countries, but several developing countries also provide funding.
Money is distributed from international climate funds to developing countries through accredited entities. The role of an accredited entity is to prepare and submit project proposals, disburse funding to projects, oversee implementation, monitor progress and report on project performance to the climate funds.
Sanbi has been accredited with both the Adaptation Fund (established in 2001 in response to the Kyoto Protocol) since 2011, and the Green Climate Fund since 2016.
In 2018, the institute initiated the development of a national pipeline of project proposals for the Green Climate Fund and invited Expressions of Interest from across the country. This led to the fund's approval of three concept notes, which are now being developed into comprehensive funding proposals.
The projects currently in development are:
Scaling up ecosystem-based approaches to managing climate-intensified disaster risks in vulnerable regions of South Africa (Eco-DRR): With a requested grant of $40-million, this project seeks to use nature-based solutions to mitigate the effects of extreme weather events, directly benefiting approximately 366,000 people and indirectly reaching about 5.1 million.
Ecosystem-based approaches for transforming smallholder farming systems that are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change in South Africa (EbA-Farm): This $25-million project will use participatory, ecosystem-based methods to improve the resilience of 60,000 smallholder farmers and their communities across four provinces.
Ecosystem-based adaptation for water security in South Africa (EbA-Water): Requesting $25-million, this initiative looks to safeguard 11 of the nation's strategic water source areas, ultimately affecting an estimated 17.1 million people.
Sanbi said it was also actively working with various national and provincial partners to develop more projects for future consideration. DM