GRASS — Verified Carbon Revenue Reaches Communal Rangeland Farmers in South Africa

Communal rangelands around Matatiele in South Africa's Eastern Cape and neighbouring KwaZulu-Natal were degraded by decades of unmanaged grazing. TASC (a carbon project developer) partnered with the social enterprise Meat Naturally Africa to restore them through the GRASS project, combining regenerative grazing management with improved livestock market access.

Register the first grassland carbon project globally under Verra's VM0042 methodology for improved agricultural land management, generate verified carbon revenue for communal farmers, and pair it with better livestock market access via mobile auctions and abattoirs.

Regenerative grazing management was implemented across more than 95,000 hectares of initial-phase communal rangeland spanning roughly 180 communities and nearly 10,000 farmers, with a revenue-sharing model giving communities over 50% of net carbon revenue in the first decade, rising to 80% by year 20. Meat Naturally also describes 'contextual fire management' across a wider ~400,000-hectare communal landscape.

The first monitoring period (2021-2023) generated 266,255 independently verified carbon units, the first grassland carbon credits worldwide to carry Verra's CCB label. In August 2026, TASC and Meat Naturally distributed the first real revenue tranche: R2.7 million to 15 participating communities. Farmers also reported R56.4 million in additional income from improved livestock market access.

TASC's ambition to scale to 2 million hectares by 2030 (~14 million tonnes CO2e over 30 years) is explicitly stated in the source as 'a target, not yet a verified result.' No independently quantified fire-risk-reduction figures, nor standalone biodiversity/soil field metrics, have been published to support the CCB label's implied co-benefits.