R3G’s MISSION
To evaluate the most cost-effective way of restoring degraded ecosystems, while ensuring opportunities for social upliftment.
Once restored, ecosystems provide increased carbon storage, enhanced soil quality and stability, improved quality of river water, increased base water flows, reduced siltation of dams, and the return of biodiversity that was present prior to degradation.
NEW View our Spekboom & Carbon info sheet.
R3G – the organisation
R3G comprises a group of scientists whose strength lies in a unique partnership between their scientific expertise based at Rhodes University and from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, with the funding and practical implementation provided by the South African Government’s Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).
R3G’s primary partner is the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), in particular, its Working for Water Programme (DWAF/WfWater) and its Working for Woodlands Programme (DWAF/WfWoodlands). It also works with South African National Biodiversity Institute’s (SANBI) Working for Wetlands Programme, and the World Wide Fund-South Africa (WWF). The implementing agency for all of this work is the Gamtoos Irrigation Board, which has an excellent track record for managing this challenging work under often extremely trying conditions. R3G is also working in collaboration with Wageningen University & Research Centre (WUR) and Participatory Restoration of Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital (PRESENCE). This list of partners will undoubtedly grow in the future.
R3G ACTIVITIES
R3G’s interests include all South African ecosystems, with a primary focus on the subtropical thicket biome, riparian fynbos communities, coastal subtropical forests and coastal dunefields of the Eastern Cape.
By monitoring and evaluating restoration projects, R3G is developing best practice protocols in a range of activities. These include the replanting of spekboom or igwanishe (Portulacaria afra) cuttings in degraded thicket sites (History of spekboom restoration), removing water-thirsty alien trees from water catchments, repairing eroded riversides, and restoring coastal forests as well as coastal dunes.
These interventions not only improve the environment and its ability to deliver ecosystem services, but also provide opportunities for skills development. R3G is investigating the prospects of generating earnings through a variety of credits, for example water and biodiversity credits. In particular, R3G has evidence that restored and recovering thicket vegetation actively stores carbon at a relatively rapid rate, which makes it an excellent candidate for trade in the international carbon market resulting from the Kyoto Protocol developed in response to global warming. Investigations are also underway to determine the potential for restoration of coastal forests in the former Transkei.
An understanding of socio-economic factors will enable appropriate recommendations in the development of mechanisms to use Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) markets and the incentives that flow from these markets. Further aims are to build capacity and to communicate outcomes in order to encourage state and private initiation of restoration projects. The objective is to use carbon sequestration credits and poverty-relief funded restoration to assist in providing a medium-term solution to poverty in the rural economy of the Eastern Cape.
South Africa’s land restitution programme will be gaining momentum within the next ten years, with 30% of agricultural land being transferred to those previously disadvantaged by apartheid policies. For large areas in the Eastern Cape, this means that marginalized members of society will be inheriting an ecological debt. Restoration is a means to alleviate this situation. R3G is investigating various avenues for international payment of ecosystem services which would generate earnings to boost rural economies.
Read the restoration of spekboom and the carbon market info sheet.
Investing in Sustainability
Investing in Sustainability - Restoring degraded thicket, capturing carbon and earning green credit.
Click here to access the booklet