South Africa: Delivering Capital Markets Innovation to Create Jobs, Build Skills, and Conserve Biodiversity

Development Challenge

South Africa ranks among the world's most biodiverse countries in the world, with ecosystems that support more than 95,000 species and underpin the national economy, local livelihoods, and climate resilience. This rich biodiversity contributes to an estimated 418,000 jobs in biodiversity use and protection. Black rhinos-native to this area and classified as critically endangered-are acutely vulnerable to extinction due to severe population declines driven by poaching and habitat pressures.

WBG Approach

The SA WCB is an award-winning project designed to reverse declining black rhino populations while delivering environmental and social benefits to the local communities. It pilots a new financial and operational model in Addo Elephant National Park and Great Fish River Nature Reserve- which has the highest unemployment rate in South Africa at 43 percent (as of December 2025). The project creates local jobs, promotes nature-based tourism, and conserves biodiversity at two priority black rhino sites responsible for a significant share of global black rhino populations. It also addresses chronic underfunding and short-term financing cycles that have historically constrained conservation efforts across Africa.

The SA WCB is a financial innovation that transfers the risk of achieving biodiversity conservation project results from donors to investors. Instead of receiving semi-annual bond coupon payments, investors allow those funds to finance protection of black rhinos. At the end of the five-year bond term, investors may receive up to nearly $14 million in conservation success payment (from The Global Environment Facility funds), calculated based on the rhino population growth rate and independently verified by Conservation Alpha and Zoological Society of London. This structure crowds in private investment while managing risk-creating jobs at scale without adding pressure to public finances.

Results and Outcomes

Between 2022 and 2025, the project pioneered an innovative model for development finance, attracting private capital to fund biodiversity conservation, with success measured by increased black rhino population. Rhinos are one of the "Big 5" species key to South Africa's tourism sector, which is a cornerstone of its economy contributing nearly 10 percent to the national GDP, and benefiting both biodiversity and rural economies. Key SA WCB results to date include:

• Nearly 8 percent compound annual growth of black rhino population, double the max-target
• Over 150,000 hectares of terrestrial areas under enhanced conservation and improved management
• Over 2,700 park staff, youth, contractors and local community members benefited from the project's investments through a training and education initiative for young people, employment opportunities for the local youth and community as rangers and trainees, and contracts awarded to local businesses.

The first of its kind bond was made possible thanks to close collaboration with teams from South African National Parks and Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency, the executing agencies. The Global Environment Facility is the outcome payer, and Conservation Alpha and Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the calculation and verification agents, respectively. Citibank and Credit Suisse were the joint bookrunners. SA WCB investors included Nuveen (lead investor), along with Mackenzie Investments, AllianceBernstein, Azimut Investments, ASN Impact Investors, T. Rowe Price among others.

Contribution to WBG Targets and Jobs

SA WCB contributed to the creation of both permanent and temporary jobs, including for small civil works activities, the ecosystems program, and positions such as rangers, rhino monitors, gate guards, Joint Operations Centre staff, and project managers. Additional temporary employment was generated during construction phases - including borehole drilling, fencing, road upgrades, and rehabilitation of accommodation - with local recruitment prioritized.

"We initiated the School-in-a-box program to help the kids who are battling at school. It has had an impact because now they have a safe place where they can do their homework. They are so excited and we've seen a good increase in their marks."
Elvis Mncedi-Lali, Co-founder Addo Youth Football Academy (AFYA). AFYA was created to uplift young people facing poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy, and unemployment.

Lessons Learned

Important lessons from the SA WCB include:

• Engaging and securing donors, who will pay for the conservation success payments to investors if the project is successful, early in the process is key to integrate their project requirements into its design.
• Selecting a performance metric that can be objectively and independently measured is essential.
• Engaging project partners with established performance in conservation and development outcomes and management capacity is critical, since it provides confidence to investors in the managers ability to deliver on outcomes.
• Securing donor and investor confidence requires strong project environmental and social safeguards.

Next Steps

The SA WCB establishes a replicable and scalable results-based funding model that can be adapted globally for biodiversity conservation and other development challenges. Since 2022, the model was adapted in multiple countries and for diverse priorities, raising awareness of innovative biodiversity financing, such as the Emissions Reduction-Linked Bond in Vietnam and the Plastics Waste-reduction Bond in Ghana and Indonesia. The World Bank Group is developing new wildlife conservation bonds, for coral reefs in Indonesia and chimpanzee habitats in Rwanda. Other Multi-lateral Development Banks and private banks are designing similar transactions, and private issuances are expected in the market in 2026.