Spekboom shrub helps restore South Africa's Eastern Cape thickets
Doc Ndyawe watches for poachers targeting the black rhinos that browse the thickets along South Africa's Great Fish River, but drought worries him more. "It's wet here now, Kwandwe is looking beautiful," said Ndyawe, a ranger at the 30,000-hectare Kwandwe Private Game Reserve. On World Wildlife Day, the United Nations named the thicket restoration initiative a World Restoration Flagship, an award for efforts to restore nature and the benefits it provides to people. The project is creating hundreds of jobs in a region marked by poverty, unemployment and inequality. It was named a flagship of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration in 2025.
The restored thickets bring jobs and water security to communities in the Eastern Cape while giving rhinos and elephants back their habitat.
Source: How “miracle plant” spekboom is helping revive South Africa’s Eastern Cape (unep.org).
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