Luxury safari operator Singita is deepening its climate credentials through a new partnership with South Africa’s Grassland Restoration and Stewardship in South Africa (GRASS) project, allowing guests to offset the carbon footprint of their safari stays while supporting one of the world's most ambitious community-led grassland restoration initiatives.
The initiative integrates verified carbon credits from the GRASS project into Singita’s guest experience through a carbon-offset levy incorporated into bookings. The levy is calculated according to emissions generated during a guest’s stay, including electricity consumption, generator use and safari activities, with proceeds directed towards the purchase of carbon credits from the project.
The partnership links Africa’s high-end tourism sector with a carbon project that has attracted global attention for pioneering a new model of nature-based climate finance. Developed by carbon specialist TASC, the GRASS project is the first initiative registered under Verra’s VM0042 Improved Agricultural Land Management methodology and the first globally to issue Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB)-labelled grassland carbon credits under the standard.
Spanning approximately 605,000 hectares of communal rangelands across South Africa, the project aims to expand to one million hectares by 2027. Through improved grazing management and regenerative land stewardship, the initiative is designed to increase soil carbon sequestration, restore degraded grasslands and improve livestock productivity. The project is expected to remove or avoid more than 380,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually and more than 14 million tonnes over its first three decades.
The social impact is equally significant. More than 10,000 communal livestock farmers are already participating, while the programme has created around 900 jobs, many of them for women. Increased livestock and wool productivity have also generated millions of dollars in additional income for participating communities, demonstrating how carbon markets can channel climate finance directly into rural economies.
For voluntary carbon markets, the agreement represents a notable evolution in how carbon credits reach end users. Rather than relying solely on corporate buyers, the model embeds climate action directly into tourism spending, creating a transparent connection between travellers, conservation outcomes and local livelihoods.
The move also comes as carbon markets face growing scrutiny over credit quality and environmental integrity. By sourcing credits from a project carrying both Verra certification and the CCB label, Singita is positioning its offset offering around measurable ecological restoration and community benefits rather than carbon reductions alone.
The partnership builds on Singita’s long-standing sustainability strategy and previous carbon-offset initiatives. However, unlike earlier programmes focused on clean cooking solutions, the GRASS collaboration places grassland restoration, soil carbon and community-led land management at the centre of the company's climate approach.
As demand for responsible travel grows, the partnership could offer a glimpse into the future of African ecotourism, where every safari night contributes not only to wildlife conservation but also to landscape restoration, climate resilience and rural development.
