A 787 ha buffer zone around the Buffelsdraai Landfill Site was previously under sugarcane production and has been changed into a community reforestation project.

Nature-based Intervention:

The Wildlands Conservation Trust’s implemented the Indigenous Trees for Life Programme surrounding the landfill site. This Programme allows for local unemployed residents to become ‘Tree-preneurs’, where they set up small-scale indigenous tree nurseries. These trees are then bought for credits by the reforestation project to be utilized at the landfill site. The credits can be utilized to purchase groceries, bicycles, building materials, cover school fees, or to receive vehicle driving lessons. There have been over 786,894 trees and other plants of over 141 species planted on 712 ha of land so far utilizing this model. These new trees also provide an important forest barrier protecting the local community from noise and air pollution from the landfill, while simultaneously capturing carbon and increasing habitat availability for local species.

Overview of context and outcomes:

The Buffelsdraai Landfill Site is the largest regional waste landfill within the eThekwini Municipality and the 787 ha buffer zone around it had previously been used to farm sugarcane for almost 100 years. The project to restore this buffer zone landscape was initialized by the nearby city of Durban in order to offset the emissions it would release for hosting part of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.