Many invasive species provide both benefits and costs to society and the environment. These benefits include aesthetic values, but also provide resources such as timber, fuelwood, fodder and food.
Prosopis is an agroforestry tree that was introduced globally to over 100 countries – including South Africa. Prosopis went through mass scale distribution and planting, to aid farmers with fodder, shade and fire wood in the arid parts of South Africa.
Research on rough-barked Honey Myrtle (Melaleuca parvistaminea) in South Africa began in 2009 when the newly formed SANBI’s Invasive Species Programme attempt to identify potentially invasive alien plant species as targets for eradication.
Protected areas (PAs) are a key intervention for conserving biodiversity and ecosystem services. A major challenge for PAs is the control of invasive alien plants that spread into PAs from surrounding areas such as forestry plantations.
The volcanic island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean is the least disrupted of the biodiversity-rich islands of the Mascarene archipelago, with around 30% of the native vegetation still intact. She-oak or ironwood (Casuarina equisetifolia), a fast-growing tree native to Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia, the Philippines, Polynesia, and Southeast Asia, was introduced to La Réunion in 1738, mainly for use as firewood.