South Africa places a high premium on the role of land and the constituent ecosystems in the quest for a green economy . 80% of the land is used for agriculture and subsistence livelihoods; 11% of it (12.76 million ha) has arable potential, while majority (69%) is used for grazing: 82% of the 12.76 million ha of cultivated land is under commercial agriculture, most of it rainfed. About six million people depend on agriculture for their livelihoods; nearly a million of them employed as farm workers. The smallholder agricultural sector provides employment for an additional 1.3 million households. Indeed, about 43% of South AfricaÔÇÖs 46 million people live in rural areas and depend on natural resources to sustain livelihoods . Despite the importance of land and its ecosystems, South Africa is however prone to land degradation, currently exacerbated by human activities that disturb the delicate but dynamic equilibrium between soils, vegetation, and climate. According to WWF (2209), South African soils are extremely vulnerable to degradation and have low recovery potential; more than 5 million hectares (more than double the size of Kruger National Park) of cultivated lands are already seriously acidified. This is a serious problem in the Karoo, the Albany thickets and the Olifants catchment, three of the nine biomes (Map in Annex 1) the country depends on for economic development. The 3 biomes currently exhibit signs of degradation of critical ecosystem services. In these bilomes, land degradation is due to improper soil management practices, cultivation of unsuitable soils, improper management of cultivated crop land, deforestation and extensive removal of natural vegetation (including over-exploitation of vegetation for domestic use), overgrazing, alteration of surface/subsurface flow and inappropriate water abstraction. Consequences of degradation in these areas are reduced quantity and quality of water available to both nature and people, reduction of soil moisture content, disrupted water flow regimes, reduced recharge of groundwater table, increased sediments and pollutants in fresh water bodies, and low capacity of wetlands to buffer flooding and pollution, particularly in the Olifants.