Synergies between research organisations and the wider community in enhancing weed biological control in South Africa
Biological control offers a cost effective and ecologically sustainable tool for the management of invasive alien plants. Its implementation, however, has historically been slow and poorly co-ordinated. In South Africa, as in many other countries, most aspects of biological control programmes were d...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Others |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2018
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68452 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-017-9846-4 |
| Summary: | Biological control offers a cost effective and ecologically sustainable tool for the management of invasive alien plants. Its implementation, however, has historically been slow and poorly co-ordinated. In South Africa, as in many other countries, most aspects of biological control programmes were done by researchers, but from 1995 onwards, with the advent of the Working for Water Programme, a more inclusive approach to biological control has been adopted. In this paper, we report on the development of community-based biological control implementation programmes in South Africa, after 1995, and highlight a number of initiatives, including employing persons with disabilities at mass-rearing facilities and in particular, we outline a suite of educational and outreach programmes for the general public and for schools, which have increased capacity, education and employment in the field of weed biological control. |
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