South Africa Desert Rewilding Earns 34,000 Carbon Credits

Wildlife is bringing the Kalahari Desert back to life while pulling carbon out of the air, one hoofprint at a time.

At Tswalu Kalahari Reserve in northern South Africa, decades of reintroducing springbok antelope, giraffes, and other native animals are doing something remarkable. They're restoring damaged soil and fighting climate change at the same time.

The reserve spans 292,000 acres, larger than Hong Kong. The Oppenheimer family bought it in 1999 with a bold vision: rebuild an entire ecosystem by bringing back the animals that once roamed here by the millions.

Before European settlers arrived, springbok herds stretched 100 miles long and 15 miles wide. Indigenous San people compared their numbers to stars in the Milky Way. By the early 1900s, hunting and fencing had wiped them out, and the land suffered without them.

Here's the science that makes this work: when wild herbivores graze and move on, they leave behind dung and urine that feeds soil microbes. These microbes turn that waste into carbon-rich soil that's actually more stable than carbon stored in trees. Soil can't burn in a wildfire or get chopped down.

Globally, soil holds three times more carbon than forests. Yet most carbon credit projects focus only on planting trees.

Yale University researcher Oswald Schmitz explains that the partially digested matter in wildlife dung gives microbes exactly what they need. "It gets absorbed into the soil, and then it gets absorbed by the plants and enhances productivity of the vegetation," he told Mongabay.

Interestingly, livestock can't do this job. Antibiotics given to cattle and sheep pass into the soil and kill the helpful microbes that create carbon-rich ecosystems.

The Ripple Effect

Tswalu has already issued more than 34,000 carbon credits and aims to reach 275,000 total. The money from selling these credits helps keep the reserve running sustainably.

Duncan MacFadyen, head of research at the reserve, says the project shows rewilding can both fight climate change and restore land productivity. In a region that gets just 4 to 20 inches of rain per year, that's a win for both wildlife and the planet.

The waterless desert is teeming with life again, proving nature knows how to heal itself when given the chance.