With the launch of the R2.6-billion Working for Water Programme, government is taking steps to protect its ecosystems and bolster climate resilience by controlling invasive alien species and restoring natural habitats. However, experts argue that SA needs more funding focused on fewer areas for the programme to succeed.
Alien invasive species take over the natural functioning of ecosystems,” said Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) Minister Barbara Creecy from Heidelberg, Gauteng last Friday, during the launch of the new R2.6-billion project, which forms part of the Working for Water Programme.
“It is for this reason our Department is happy today to announce this five-year programme to combat alien species and the damage they do to our land, wetlands and rivers.”
This programme aims to control invasive alien plants over 1.2-million hectares across all nine provinces over five years and create 38,839 work opportunities every year, primarily in rural communities throughout the country.
This project is part of the Working for Water Programme, first launched in 1995, that focuses on removing invasive alien plants and bush encroachments from critical waterways and wetlands.
According to the South African National Biodiversity Institute’s (Sanbi) latest status report on Biological Invasions and Their Management from 2019, invasive trees use 3-5% of South Africa’s runoff water every year, and many species of invasive plants are also less drought-resistant than indigenous ones.
“Invasive alien species are brought in from other parts of the world, and where they come from, originally, they have got a whole lot of pests and diseases and things, predators that keep them in check.” Dr Brian van Wilgen, ecologist and Emeritus Professor of the Centre for Invasion Biology at Stellenbosch University explained to Daily Maverick.
“When you bring them here, all of those checks are gone — that’s why they become so aggressively invasive.”
The department explained that invasives threaten biodiversity, water security and quality as well as destroy the productive use of land and ecological functioning of natural systems.
Van Wilgen, who was the first Scientific Advisor to the Working for Water programme (between 1996 and 2004) explained that even though R2.6-billion sounds like a lot, there are over 200 alien invasives plants and species that need to be controlled in the country – but we’re only getting to less than 1% of that per year, while we estimate that the problem is spreading at between 7.4 and 15.6% annually.
This is an extract of an article that first appeared on https://www.dailymaverick.co.za and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
