• How should biological invasion management interventions be co-ordinated, if at
all?
• Who should pay for biological invasion management interventions and under
what circumstances?
• How should South Africa build, maintain and retain efficient and effective
biological invasion management capacity?
Although the draft White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of
South Africa’s Biological Diversity started to provide some initial guidance in this
regard, its status as a draft rather than final policy has ensured that it has largely
descended into obscurity and, as a result, it is not referenced at all in important
policy-dependant or policy-relevant publications like the 2014 draft National Strategy for dealing with Biological Invasions in South Africa (Department of Environmental Affairs 2014) or the report on the status of biological invasions and their
management in South Africa in 2017 (van Wilgen and Wilson 2018).
Without guidance on the important questions listed above, it is possible that
biological invasion-related legislation is not tailored to achieve a specific desired and
strategic outcome, but largely continues to follow the historical ‘identify and direct’
approach. Without nationally accepted guidance on desired outcomes and indicators
for their measurement (cf. Wilson et al. 2018), all biological invasion management
strategies and plans are likely to be no more than lists of activities and good
intentions. Without guidance on prioritisation, valuable and limited resources may
not be being used optimally. Without guidance on what interventions are preferred it
is possible that some interventions may be resulting in perverse outcomes.
It is also probably safe to conclude that the over 6-year delay in the publication of
the Regulations and Notices referred to in Sect. 18.7.4 above was probably exacerbated by the lack of policy, i.e. the 6-year development process would have been
greatly reduced if the development of the Regulations and Notices were directed by
clear and unambiguous national policy.
Finally, without policy, the dubious ‘nationalistic’ or ‘species xenophobia’ justification for invasive alien species eradication remains unchallenged. For example,
Pooley (2010) suggests that the very existence of WfW “is founded on antagonism
to harmful introduced species, and advocates routinely use emotive language
referring to ‘cleaning’ areas of ‘infestations’ of ‘alien’ plants, which ‘threaten to
engulf and exterminate the unique indigenous fauna and flora’”. Alarmingly, Pooley
(2010) notes that parallels have been drawn between the focus on invasive alien
plants in the emotional public response to the devastating veld fires in the Western
Cape of 2000 and xenophobia in contemporary South Africa.
18.8.2 Law, Compliance and Enforcement
The first biological invasion-related ‘action point’ of the draft White Paper on the
Conservation and Sustainable Use of South Africa’s Biological Diversity is that the
law required reforming and that strengthened compliance and enforcement of the
18 Biological Invasion Policy and Legislation Development
545
all?
• Who should pay for biological invasion management interventions and under
what circumstances?
• How should South Africa build, maintain and retain efficient and effective
biological invasion management capacity?
Although the draft White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of
South Africa’s Biological Diversity started to provide some initial guidance in this
regard, its status as a draft rather than final policy has ensured that it has largely
descended into obscurity and, as a result, it is not referenced at all in important
policy-dependant or policy-relevant publications like the 2014 draft National Strategy for dealing with Biological Invasions in South Africa (Department of Environmental Affairs 2014) or the report on the status of biological invasions and their
management in South Africa in 2017 (van Wilgen and Wilson 2018).
Without guidance on the important questions listed above, it is possible that
biological invasion-related legislation is not tailored to achieve a specific desired and
strategic outcome, but largely continues to follow the historical ‘identify and direct’
approach. Without nationally accepted guidance on desired outcomes and indicators
for their measurement (cf. Wilson et al. 2018), all biological invasion management
strategies and plans are likely to be no more than lists of activities and good
intentions. Without guidance on prioritisation, valuable and limited resources may
not be being used optimally. Without guidance on what interventions are preferred it
is possible that some interventions may be resulting in perverse outcomes.
It is also probably safe to conclude that the over 6-year delay in the publication of
the Regulations and Notices referred to in Sect. 18.7.4 above was probably exacerbated by the lack of policy, i.e. the 6-year development process would have been
greatly reduced if the development of the Regulations and Notices were directed by
clear and unambiguous national policy.
Finally, without policy, the dubious ‘nationalistic’ or ‘species xenophobia’ justification for invasive alien species eradication remains unchallenged. For example,
Pooley (2010) suggests that the very existence of WfW “is founded on antagonism
to harmful introduced species, and advocates routinely use emotive language
referring to ‘cleaning’ areas of ‘infestations’ of ‘alien’ plants, which ‘threaten to
engulf and exterminate the unique indigenous fauna and flora’”. Alarmingly, Pooley
(2010) notes that parallels have been drawn between the focus on invasive alien
plants in the emotional public response to the devastating veld fires in the Western
Cape of 2000 and xenophobia in contemporary South Africa.
18.8.2 Law, Compliance and Enforcement
The first biological invasion-related ‘action point’ of the draft White Paper on the
Conservation and Sustainable Use of South Africa’s Biological Diversity is that the
law required reforming and that strengthened compliance and enforcement of the
18 Biological Invasion Policy and Legislation Development
545