South Africa has launched ReLISA (Restoring Landscapes in South Africa), a five-year, €15-million initiative aimed at rehabilitating degraded grassland, savanna and thicket ecosystems, expanding protected areas, and building climate and water resilience. Funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment through its International Climate Initiative, the programme was jointly launched on October 16, 2025, alongside the G20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group Ministerial Meeting in Cape Town.
The launch brought together South Africa’s Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Dion George; Germany’s Federal Minister for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety Carsten Schneider; UNEP Deputy Executive Director Elizabeth Maruma Mrema; and UN Resident Coordinator in South Africa Nelson Muffuh. The programme links ecological restoration with expanding protected areas, partnering with local communities, and developing new ways to finance conservation at a landscape-wide scale.
Decades of pressure have degraded key ecosystems
ReLISA targets South Africa’s Grassland, Savanna and Thicket Biomes, which the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) says have suffered years of strain from intensive land use — including overgrazing, mining, invasive plant species, drought and fire. Climate change is compounding these pressures through prolonged drought, rising temperatures, wildfires and shifting rainfall.
A major focus is on Strategic Water Source Areas (SWSAs), landscapes critical to South Africa’s water supply that also sustain agriculture, communities and biodiversity. EWT notes that degradation in these zones can disrupt water retention and accelerate erosion, while restoration can strengthen overall ecosystem resilience. The programme therefore ties habitat restoration to broader goals around water security, climate adaptation and local livelihoods.
A multi-organization effort
ReLISA is being carried out by a consortium including the UN Environment Programme, Endangered Wildlife Trust, UN Development Programme, UNESCO, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, C4 EcoSolutions, and Unique Landuse. The programme blends ecological restoration with economic valuation, financial innovation, and engagement with communities and land users.
EWT is focusing its efforts on three target landscapes — the Northern Drakensberg, Soutpansberg and Amatholes, where field officers work with land users on rangeland management, ecological restoration, and clearing invasive plant species. The goal, EWT says, isn’t simply to expand the amount of protected land but to strengthen links between wildlife corridors, intact habitats and properties home to threatened species.
100,000 hectares under restoration by 2030
A central target is bringing 100,000 hectares across the programme’s key landscapes under restoration by 2030, land considered important for biodiversity, water supply and climate resilience. Importantly, this figure represents a restoration goal, not land already restored.
The programme also envisions expanding protected areas through biodiversity stewardship mechanisms. In the Northern Drakensberg, EWT says it’s in the very early stages of proposing a biosphere reserve centered on grassland habitat and existing protected areas along the northeastern escarpment between Royal Natal National Park and Memel in the eastern Free State — part of a wider push to connect conservation areas rather than manage them as isolated sites.
New financing models at the core of the strategy
ReLISA also aims to tackle a persistent obstacle in large-scale restoration work: securing sustained funding. EWT says it’s developing bankable business models to draw in impact investors, agribusinesses and other private-sector players toward nature-based solutions — potentially through payments for ecosystem services, carbon credit financing, and water-fund arrangements. The idea is to connect the ecological value of restoration to financing structures that can sustain conservation work beyond one-off grants or short-term projects.
This reflects a broader premise that restoration delivers benefits beyond biodiversity alone — EWT points to potential gains in water security, soil stabilization, carbon storage and ecosystem resilience, alongside benefits for agriculture, tourism and local livelihoods. These remain intended outcomes rather than results ReLISA has already achieved.
Aiming to inform restoration efforts more broadly
ReLISA also includes a policy and knowledge-sharing element, with EWT planning to collaborate with government partners on policy and share lessons from its work both domestically and internationally. The broader ambition is to help build a longer-term restoration economy in South Africa by combining ecological work, community involvement and sustainable financing.
The programme was formally launched during South Africa’s 2025 G20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group Ministerial Meeting in Cape Town, with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment describing ReLISA as a partnership with Germany and UNEP focused on rehabilitating degraded land, generating jobs, and strengthening climate resilience. Its 2030 target — 100,000 hectares under restoration now serves as a measurable benchmark for testing how ecological recovery, protected-area expansion, water security and private investment can work together across some of South Africa’s most degraded landscapes.
