Workers for Jobs 4 Carbon plant spekboom in the project nursery in Van Wyksdorp. Photos: GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFPAFP
“Here you can see the difference between degraded land and what we call pristine spekboom veld,” he said, pointing out a division running like a contour between lush green hilltop and arid valley side.But decades of what Britz calls over-grazing and mismanagement have destroyed the shrub and the vital shade it offers the sun-scorched earth, not to mention its strength at absorbing carbon.
“And the other thing is that it occurs here naturally,” he said. “So that was why it was important to plant spekboom here and to have that secondary effect on the change of climate.” It “creates forest-like micro-environments”, a “carpet” of leaves that “trap water and dust and nutrients”, as well as carbon, he said.The latter is stored in large quantities because of the succulent’s rare ability to swing between two types of photosynthesis.
A 2006 paper estimated that one hectare of spekboom sequestered on average four tonnes of CO2 per year. Others put the figure at more than 15 tonnes.Jobs 4 Carbon is hoping to plant more of it and fund the venture selling carbon credits, a financial instrument bought by companies to offset their greenhouse gas emissions.