Over 70 million hectares across South Africa and Namibia are choked by invasive and encroaching plants. These species deplete groundwater, destroy farmland, and threaten the livelihoods of millions. African Sun Holdings is turning this crisis into opportunity.
Southern Africa faces one of the most severe environmental challenges on the continent. Invasive alien plants and indigenous bush encroachment have overwhelmed vast areas of productive land, with devastating consequences for water security, food production, and biodiversity.
An area comparable to the entire United Kingdom invaded by alien plant species.
An area larger than Germany overwhelmed by encroaching bush.
The rate at which encroachment is increasing across the region year on year.
The crisis has its roots in over two centuries of human intervention that disrupted the natural balance of Southern African ecosystems.
European settlers introduced pines, eucalyptus, and acacias for mining props, railways, and fencing. By 1940, nearly 150 eucalyptus species had been brought into South Africa. What began as commercial forestry escaped into the wild.
Elephants and other large herbivores that naturally controlled woody plant growth were removed or shot. Research by Stevens et al. (2016) demonstrates that only conservation areas retaining elephants in low rainfall savannahs maintained stable woody cover over 70 years. All other land saw woody cover approximately double.
Commercial farming introduced fencing that blocked wildlife migration, creating localised overgrazing. Overgrazed grassland reduces competition for woody seedlings, accelerating bush encroachment.
Natural fire regimes that historically kept bush in check were suppressed to protect livestock and infrastructure. Without regular burns, woody seedlings survived and spread unchecked across the landscape.
By the 1930s, prickly pear had infested 900,000 hectares. Acacia cyclops colonised over 300,000 hectares by 1975. Today, the problem continues to accelerate with invasive species expanding into new territories each year.
Invasive and encroaching plants are consuming staggering volumes of water in a region already facing severe water stress. The connection between bush invasion and water scarcity is direct and measurable.
South Africa loses approximately 3.3 billion cubic metres of water annually to invasive alien plants, equivalent to roughly 22% of the country's total mean annual runoff.
The economic toll of bush encroachment on farming communities is devastating, particularly in Namibia where agriculture forms the backbone of rural livelihoods.
Agricultural productivity in Namibia has declined by two thirds in recent decades due to bush encroachment.
The economic cost to Namibian farmers exceeds N$2.7 billion annually in lost beef production alone.
The estimated value of ecosystem services that could be restored through comprehensive bush clearing.
In South Africa's Northern Cape, approximately 150,000 hectares of previously productive farmland is now utterly unusable due to invasive Prosopis. Farming communities that depended on grazing and small scale irrigation have seen their livelihoods eroded as the invasion spreads.
Southern Africa is currently enduring its worst drought in over a century (2024 to 2026), affecting 61 million people across six countries. While El Niño patterns drive the immediate crisis, decades of unchecked bush encroachment have made the region far more vulnerable by depleting the underground water reserves that communities depend on during dry periods.
Across Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Between October 2024 and March 2025, nearly three times the 2016 El Niño drought.
The humanitarian response needed to address the crisis across the region.
In Zambia, maize production collapsed by 54%. In Zimbabwe, the cereal harvest fell 50% below the five year average, leaving 7.6 million people in need of assistance.
The connection is clear: invasive plants deplete the groundwater reserves that buffer communities against drought. Clearing these species does not just restore land, it rebuilds the water security that makes communities resilient to climate shocks.
South Africa's Working for Water programme, running since 1995, has demonstrated conclusively that invasive plant clearing delivers measurable water recovery, economic benefits, and employment at scale.
Over three million hectares cleared through systematic invasive plant removal programmes.
In the Western Cape alone, 46,000 hectares cleared since 2023 recover 15 billion litres of water per year.
Clearing programmes create approximately 50,000 jobs annually, with over 300,000 people trained since 1995.
In the Eastern Cape, clearing just 269 hectares freed enough water for 16,000 households for a year. Projections show that comprehensive clearing could deliver an additional 997 million cubic metres of water by 2050, more cost effectively than built infrastructure in nearly all South African water supply systems.
African Sun Holdings is building on these proven results with an integrated model that goes beyond clearing. We transform invasive biomass into high value products while restoring land, creating permanent employment, and generating verified carbon credits.
This is not a cleanup operation. It is an integrated biomass business that addresses one of Southern Africa's most pressing environmental challenges while building lasting economic value for communities.
Read our detailed research newsletters or get in touch to discuss how we are addressing this challenge.