About the fund
The World Bank Group’s $120 million “Spekboom Restoration Outcome Bond” is a landmark sustainable finance instrument issued by the World Bank Group (through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) in April 2026 to fund large-scale ecosystem restoration in South Africa. Structured as a 14-year bond maturing in 2040, it provides investors with full principal protection backed by the World Bank’s AAA credit, while linking a portion of returns to environmental performance—specifically the generation of carbon removal units from a restoration project developed by Imperative. The bond raised $120 million, and through its outcome-based structure is designed to mobilize roughly $25 million of private capital directly into restoring up to 50,000 hectares of degraded land using spekboom vegetation, with expected co-benefits including biodiversity recovery and approximately 11,000 local jobs. Key figures involved include World Bank CFO Anshula Kant, while BNP Paribas acted as lead manager and structuring partner, and Amazon anchors the model via a long-term carbon credit offtake agreement that underpins project revenues and investor upside.
