Amazon is backing a scheme to plant 180 million carbon-absorbing shrubs – one of the world’s largest nature-based carbon removal projects. The spekboom plants will be grown over 200 square miles of degraded land in South Africa’s Eastern Cape – an area double the size of Birmingham – to revive the ecosystem and boost local communities. Historical land use has left its landscape eroded, barren and unable to support livelihoods. By absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it within leaves and roots, plants like spekboom act as natural carbon sinks, helping to reduce greenhouse gases, improve soil health and fight climate change. Kara Hurst, Amazon’s chief sustainability officer said: “This is a story about nature, community, ingenuity, and scale.”
