Synergies between research organisations and the wider community in enhancing weed biological control in South Africa

• Main Authors: Martin, Grant D, Hill, M P, Coetzee, Julie A, Weaver, Kim N, Hill, Jaclyn Marie
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/68452; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-017-9846-4

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.