US tech and e-commerce giant Amazon has invested R24m in a transformative nature restoration and community resilience project in Soweto through its Right Now Climate Fund.
Since its launch in 2019, the Right Now Climate Fund has supported more than 20 projects across 17 countries, restoring over 72,500 hectares of land and safeguarding more than 2,200 species.
The Soweto Urban Greening Project is the fund’s first investment in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Delivered by World Re, in collaboration with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the City of Johannesburg, Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo, and GenderCC Southern Africa, the project is expected to restore degraded river landscapes, create hundreds of jobs, and equip local women with skills to build sustainable livelihoods through restoration work
Amazon Web Services (AWS) technology will map urban heat and support officials with further climate adaptation planning across the city.
Implemented with local communities, the project centres on the restoration of 130 hectares of the Klip River corridor — a critical watere species and solid waste, reintroducing indigenous vegetation, and stabilising riverbanks to enhance water quality, reduce flooding, and preserve local biodiversity
The project will also plant 20,000 trees across Soweto’s neighbourhoods.
Nature restoration projects don’t just boost ecosystems — they create jobs, empower women, and build resilience
— Kara Hurst, Amazon’s chief sustainability officer
According to Amazon’s chief sustainability officer Kara Hurst, the company believes meaningful climate action must go hand in hand with economic opportunity for the communities most affected by climate change.
“This investment in Soweto demonstrates that nature restoration projects don’t just boost ecosystems — they create jobs, empower women, and build resilience,“ she says.
“At its core, the initiative is designed to create lasting economic opportunity for Soweto’s residents. This is what integrated climate action looks like — and it’s exactly the kind of work the Right Now Climate Fund was designed to support.”
Supporting local livelihoods and communities
The Soweto Urban Greening Project is expected to create about 300 jobs in nature restoration, such as nursery businesses, urban forestry and native plant propagation.
In addition, it will provide training to equip more than 1,000 women from the community with technical skills and business know-how to turn restoration work into income-generating enterprises.
Four urban farms and 20 school clubs will be established to extend these opportunities to broader communities and youth.
This project belongs to the people of Soweto — they will own it, operate it, and benefit from it for generations to come
— Amanda Gcanga, Cities country lead, WRI
In total, the project is estimated to engage more than 2,000 people directly — of whom over 50% are women — and will benefit an area of over 200,000 people through improved food security, reduced heat stress, and flood mitigation.
“Soweto’s communities have long understood the connection between a healthy environment and a thriving community,” says Amanda Gcanga, Cities country lead for South Africaat the WRI.
“This project belongs to the people of Soweto — they will own it, operate it, and benefit from it for generations to come.”
Mapping urban heat with AWS technology
Restoring natural ecosystems has a direct cooling effect on urban neighbourhoods, which will be further supported by the development of city-scale heat stress mapping in Johannesburg.
WRI’s Cool Cities Lab data platform equips city officials with heat data accurate to the square metre, helping them deploy cooling measures such as planting trees and installing cool roofs and shade structures in the neighbourhoods where they are needed most.
AWS is providing the computing power, machine learning technology and engineering support to expand the platform’s reach and scale, making it faster, more powerful and more accessible to non-technical users such as urban planners and community leaders.
This includes building an AI assistant prototype that allows officials to ask plain-language questions about local heat conditions.
It will strengthen Cool Cities Lab’s ability to help cities deliver the heat resilience infrastructure their communities urgently need, enabling greater impact in Soweto.
A restoration model proven across three countries
The project builds on the Scaling Urban Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Adaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa (Suncasa) project, jointly managed by the IISD and WRI, which pioneered community-led river restoration and women-led enterprise development across Johannesburg, Kigali in Rwanda, and Dire Dawa in Ethiopia.
When communities have ownership over the solutions, the results are not only more sustainable — they are transformative
— Janina Schnick, lead for the Suncasa project at the IISD
Janina Schnick, lead for the Suncasa project at the IISD, says climate adaption must be locally led to be truly effective.
“We have seen first-hand how investing in community nature-based solutions creates a multiplier effect — restoring ecosystems while generating livelihoods and unlocking sustainable economic pathways for those who need them most.”
Schnick says the Soweto Urban Greening Project will deepen that impact by scaling proven approaches to river restoration, urban greening and women-led enterprise development.
“When communities have ownership over the solutions, the results are not only more sustainable — they are transformative.”
The project aligns with South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Investment Plan, the City of Johannesburg’s Climate Action Plan, and the National Climate Change Act — all of which prioritise job creation, community development, and environmental rehabilitation.
This article was sponsored by Amazon.
