Impact

Where the work meets the ground.

A marula tree planted in Bushbuckridge in January 2026 will still be standing in 2126. By then, it will have fed four generations of one family.

This page is the account of what has been done. Not what is projected. Not what is planned. What is real.

The tree custodian model is not a theory. It runs through people like these.

The path from a signed PDD to a tree in someone's garden runs through their hands, their language, their presence. The tree custodian model transfers a biological asset — a tree — to a household from the day of planting.

The people through whom the work reaches the ground

Charles raised the trees. Nkensani put them in the ground. Cry built the relationships. Lotus carries them to market.

The custodian model runs through these people and the collective system they have built together.

Charles Mdluli runs Local Plants nursery — one of the rural nursery operators whose indigenous trees, including marula, were purchased by SANParks as part of the GIZ SADC and GWPSA-sponsored rural nursery outgrower programme and donated to the Save the Sand project. Charles is the ground-level proof that the supply chain works: community-rooted, professionally operated, already embedded in the conservation infrastructure of the region.

Nkensani is one of our first cropland farmers to become a tree custodian. On her farm outside Kruger Gate Road, 123 trees are in the ground. She is not a project beneficiary. She is a landowner who made a decision, and the landscape is different because of it.

Cry Sithole works for the Ripple Fund and has been instrumental in advocating for project adoption and building relationships across the Traditional Authorities. The path from a signed FPIC to a household willing to plant runs through those relationships.

Lotus Khoza from Lotus Impact Foundation has facilitated large-scale marula fruit collection for oil processing across the catchment. He is the link between the tree in the ground and the product in the market.

A marula tree lives a hundred years. Most carbon contracts do not. The model was designed so that the people who outlast the contract are the ones with the strongest incentive to keep the tree standing.
Nursery
Charles Mdluli
Runs Local Plants nursery. Indigenous trees — including marula — sourced through the GIZ SADC / GWPSA outgrower programme, purchased by SANParks, donated to Save the Sand.
Custodian
Nkensani
First cropland farmer to become a tree custodian. 123 trees in the ground on her farm outside Kruger Gate Road. A landowner who made a decision.
Relationships
Cry Sithole
Ripple Fund. Advocated for project adoption and built relationships across the Traditional Authorities. The path from signed FPIC to planting household runs through him.
Market
Lotus Khoza
Lotus Impact Foundation. Facilitates large-scale marula fruit collection for oil processing. The link between the tree in the ground and the product in the market.
What has happened — in order, dated, in the record

Not a timeline. A chronology of things that actually happened.

Every carbon project has a PDD. This one has scenes. Each of these is a moment the work moved from concept to ground — dated, witnessed, in the record.

2024The year of propagation
Eight thousand marula seedlings came up under hand cultivation.

The Ripple Fund backed the propagation of 8,000 marula trees by Root and Ground (Pty) Ltd — a standardised cultivation protocol developed from first principles. This was the quiet year. No credits, no launch event. Just a team learning exactly how to raise a marula from seed in the right soil at the right depth with the right shade. When pilot planting began in 2026, it began because of this year.

Jun 2025The year of signatures
Six Traditional Authorities put pen to paper.

FPIC consultations — Free, Prior and Informed Consent — completed with six Traditional Authorities: Amashangana, Jongilanga, Hoxani, Mathibela, Mnisi, and Moletele. Endorsement letters signed. Tree custodian agreements drafted for formalisation. These signatures are the single most important governance event in the project's history. They are what turns a plan into a project.

Sep 2025The year of recognition
The MEC stood under a young marula at Provincial Arbor Day.

Two hundred marula trees planted as a homestead-model demonstration at the Provincial Arbor Day event, September 2025. The MEC and Save the Sand took the keynote presentation slots alongside SANParks and IUCMA. It was the first time the project's name appeared on a provincial stage as more than a concept — as infrastructure.

Dec 2025The year of institutions
SANParks signed. Good Work Foundation signed. DFFE endorsed.

SANParks cooperation agreement signed December 2025. Good Work Foundation in-principle agreement signed. DFFE formal endorsement letter received. Three separate institutions — a national park authority, an education foundation, a government department — committed in writing within weeks of each other. The project stopped being something the proponent had to introduce.

Feb 2026The year the project joined the registry
VCS 5375 on the Verra registry. Under independent validation.

The project was registered on the Verra platform as VCS 5375 and entered validation under the appointed VVB. Three years of pre-development work became a publicly verifiable record.

Mar 2026The year of the first tree
Pilot planting began. Not a launch — a beginning.

Pilot planting commenced March 2026 across the initial Project Activity Instances in Bushbuckridge. The first cohort of marula seedlings — propagated by Root and Ground, delivered by Kensani's team, registered through the WhatsApp-based custodian system — went into homestead gardens. A hundred-year lifespan started its first day.

The state of play

These are delivered numbers. Not projections.

The figures below are the current shape of the project on the ground. By the end of 2026, the project is targeting 8,000 trees in the ground, 160 hectares planted, and 200 households enrolled as tree custodians.

Trees in the ground
200
The first cohort of marula seedlings planted in Bushbuckridge homestead gardens.
Planted
2 ha
Pilot phase operational in Bushbuckridge — the start of the 40,000 ha Phase 1 footprint.
Signed TAs
6
Traditional Authorities have completed FPIC and endorsed the project.
Institutions
3
SANParks, Good Work Foundation, and DFFE — signed or endorsed.
The community alignment

Consent is not a regulatory step. It is the foundation.

Six Traditional Authority chiefdoms — Amashangana, Jongilanga, Hoxani, Mathibela, Mnisi, and Moletele — have signed FPIC endorsement agreements. The benefit-sharing architecture distributes commercial value through the communities on whose land the project operates.

Traditional Authorities with FPIC6 chiefdoms
Direct jobs (establishment phase)483 targeted
Female participation target50%
Benefit-sharing architectureDirect custodian payments, local employment, and the PPCP Infrastructure Fund — reaching the communities on whose land the project operates.
Endangered species protectedPepperbark tree (Warburgia salutaris) and others (see Appendix 5, PDD)
Biodiversity area~40,000 ha under active restoration across Phase 1
The SDG alignment

A single project. Fourteen direct SDG alignments. Five more by implication.

Save the Sand maps across the full United Nations Sustainable Development Goals framework — climate, land, water, livelihoods, institutions, and the connections between them. Three primary alignments carry the most weight. The rest are present, documented, and compound with each other.

UN SDG 13 — Climate Action
SDG 13 · Primary
Climate Action
Verified carbon dioxide removal at catchment scale, targeting ~7.3 million tCO₂e net over 40 years. These are removals, not offsets — real, measured, third-party verified.
UN SDG 15 — Life on Land
SDG 15 · Primary
Life on Land
Restoration of degraded habitats, biodiversity corridor creation, and protection of endangered species including the Pepperbark tree (Warburgia salutaris) — one of the most threatened medicinal species in southern Africa.
UN SDG 1 and 10 — No Poverty and Reduced Inequalities
SDG 1 + 10 · Primary
No Poverty · Reduced Inequalities
Employment, training, enterprise development, and a structured benefit-sharing architecture reaching an estimated 120,000 households in one of South Africa's most economically constrained municipalities.
UN SDG 2 — Zero Hunger
SDG 2 · Direct
Zero Hunger
Homestead marula agroforestry puts fruit, oil and kernels on land households already occupy. The Feb–Apr 2026 first harvest delivered real revenue to custodian families and standing nutrition in family gardens.
UN SDG 3 — Good Health and Well-being
SDG 3 · Direct
Good Health and Well-being
Catchment restoration lifts air and water quality downstream. Propagation and protection of medicinal species — including the endangered Pepperbark tree (Warburgia salutaris) — preserves the pharmacopoeia rural health systems have depended on for generations.
UN SDG 4 — Quality Education
SDG 4 · Direct
Quality Education
Custodian training in propagation, planting, and dMRV reporting runs through every household in the programme. The Good Work Foundation partnership signed in late 2025 turns project activity into accredited skills transfer.
UN SDG 5 — Gender Equality
SDG 5 · Direct
Gender Equality
A 50% female participation target is written into project design — a requirement, not an aspiration. Marula oil collection, nursery operations, and custodian enrolment are structured to route income to women in the household.
UN SDG 6 — Clean Water and Sanitation
SDG 6 · Direct
Clean Water and Sanitation
The Sabie and Sand rivers are the reason this project exists. Every hectare restored reduces sediment load, improves infiltration, and protects the dry-season flows that downstream users — including Mozambique — depend on.
UN SDG 8 — Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 8 · Direct
Decent Work and Economic Growth
The establishment phase targets 483 direct jobs — not piecework, but nursery, planting, monitoring and fruit-collection roles anchored in long-lived assets that keep paying for forty years.
UN SDG 9 — Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
SDG 9 · Direct
Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
A Traditional Authority Infrastructure Fund and a WhatsApp-based dMRV system bring registry-grade carbon accounting into rural homesteads — without asking the household to learn a new interface.
UN SDG 11 — Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 11 · Direct
Sustainable Communities
Homestead-scale resilience — trees for shade, fruit, fodder and income on the plots where families already live. The community becomes more self-sustaining with every tree planted.
UN SDG 12 — Responsible Consumption and Production
SDG 12 · Direct
Responsible Consumption and Production
A standardised cultivation protocol, traceable fruit and oil supply chains, and a benefit-sharing architecture that runs from the custodian's garden to the product on the shelf. Every credit and every kilogram is accounted for at the tree.
UN SDG 16 — Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
SDG 16 · Direct
Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Six Traditional Authorities have signed FPIC endorsement agreements. The Public-Private-Community Partnership (PPCP) governance structure puts communities, not consultants, at the table where decisions are made.
UN SDG 17 — Partnerships for the Goals
SDG 17 · Direct
Partnerships for the Goals
The project operates through signed partnerships with SANParks, DFFE, Good Work Foundation, Verra, IUCMA, K2C, GIZ/GWPSA, and six Traditional Authorities. Not a logo wall — the actual operating structure of the project.
The full SDG alignment — all 17 goals in the frame
SDG 1 — No Poverty SDG 2 — Zero Hunger SDG 3 — Good Health and Well-being SDG 4 — Quality Education SDG 5 — Gender Equality SDG 6 — Clean Water and Sanitation SDG 7 — Affordable and Clean Energy SDG 8 — Decent Work and Economic Growth SDG 9 — Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure SDG 10 — Reduced Inequalities SDG 11 — Sustainable Cities and Communities SDG 12 — Responsible Consumption and Production SDG 13 — Climate Action SDG 14 — Life Below Water SDG 15 — Life on Land SDG 16 — Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions SDG 17 — Partnerships for the Goals

Full SDG mapping — 14 direct and 5 indirect goals — is documented in the project's PDD. Impact monitoring follows the CCB Gold Standard community and biodiversity reporting framework. Hover any icon for the specific alignment.

The crediting period opens in 2029–2031. Everything between now and then is the evidence base.

Every tree planted, every custodian enrolled, every hectare registered is the physical record a verified credit requires. To follow the project as it delivers — or to become part of the custodian, partner, or patron network — start a conversation.

Start a conversation → The project detail ↗