Benefits of water-related ecological infrastructure investments to support sustainable land-use: a review of evidence from critically water-stressed catchments in South Africa

This article examines evidence on the benefits of ecological infrastructure interventions, in terms of ecosystem services provided to society, from three major South African water-providing catchments. Results of the study show: The evidence base for the benefits of investing in ecological infrastructure is empirically weak for three of the most invested-in South African catchments; There is a need for better baseline data collection, and monitoring during and after ecological infrastructure interventions to establish evidence for the benefits; It is recommended that governments make funding available to support focused, applied and local empirical research to build an evidence base for the benefits of ecological infrastructure investments globally; Private sector investment could potentially complement and relieve constrained public sector funding; however, evidence of financial returns is required; Finance to be able to implement ecological infrastructure interventions at scale could bring greater benefits to nature and people through more sustainable land-use.