An assessment of the evolution, costs and effectiveness of alien plant control operations in Kruger National Park, South Africa
Date
2017-06-02
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Pensoft Publishers
Abstract
Alien plants were first recorded in 1937 in the 2 million ha Kruger National Park (KNP, a savanna protected
area in South Africa), and attempts to control them began in the mid-1950s. The invasive alien plant
control program expanded substantially in the late 1990s, but its overall efficacy has not been determined.
We present an assessment of invasive alien plant control operations over several decades in KNP. We based
our assessment on available information from a range of control programs funded from various sources,
including national public works programs, KNP operational funds, and foreign donor funds. Over ZAR
350 million (~ US$ 27 million) has been spent on control interventions between 1997 and 2016. We
found evidence of good progress with the control of several species, notably Opuntia stricta, Sesbania punicea,
Lantana camara and several aquatic weeds, often because of effective biological control. On the other
hand, we found that over one third (40%) of the funding was spent on species that have subsequently been
recognised as being of lower priority, most of which were alien annual weeds. The allocation of funds to
non-priority species was sometimes driven by the need to meet additional objectives (such as employment
creation), or by perceptions about relative impact in the absence of documented evidence. We also found
that management goals were limited to inputs (funds disbursed, employment created, and area treated)
rather than to ecological outcomes, and progress was consequently not adequately monitored. At a species
level, four out of 36 species were considered to be under complete control, and a further five were under
substantial control. Attempts to control five annual species were all considered to be ineffective.
Description
CITATION: Van Wilgen, B. W., et al. 2017. An assessment of the evolution, costs and effectiveness of alien plant control operations in Kruger National Park, South Africa. NeoBiota, 35:35-59, doi:10.3897/neobiota.35.12391.
The original publication is available at https://neobiota.pensoft.net
The original publication is available at https://neobiota.pensoft.net
Keywords
Alien plants -- South Africa -- Kruger National Park, Plants -- Biological control -- South Africa -- Kruger National Park, Invasive alien plant control program, Natural areas -- South Africa -- Management
Citation
Van Wilgen, B. W., et al. 2017. An assessment of the evolution, costs and effectiveness of alien plant control operations in Kruger National Park, South Africa. NeoBiota, 35:35-59, doi:10.3897/neobiota.35.12391