Our flagship Green Economy Programme:
Removing and Beneficiating Invasive Alien Plants
To build resilience at the local level, we work with nature-based solutions that include addressing socio-environmental challenges
through a circular green economy, as well as addressing biodiversity loss.
We work where we can make a direct grassroots difference to people in their natural environment, striving towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Right now we focus on the Agulhas Plain in the Overberg region of South Africa, specifically Napier Mountain Conservancy. We present landscape scale solutions as a holistic approach to reconcile the competing objectives of nature conservation and economic activities across a given landscape
Challenges such as poverty, food security, climate change, water scarcity, deforestation and biodiversity loss are connected, and an integrated approach is needed to address them.
We implement NBS, defined as the sustainable management and use of nature to address socio-environmental challenges, via our flagship
project that deals with the challenges associated with invasive alien trees on the Agulhas Plain in the Overberg region of South Africa such
as climate change, water security, biodiversity loss and disaster risk management.
Have a look at how we implement Nature Based Solutions
Biodiversity loss includes the extinction of species worldwide.
The latest United Nations Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (released in July 2021) shows that 1 million species worldwide are threatened with extinction as a result of human activities!
In the Cape Floral Region, where our flagship green economy programme is located, invasive alien plants quickly replace native species if unmanaged, and threaten the diversity of native plant life, where 70% of plants are found nowhere else on the planet. Alien species are regarded to be one of the biggest threats to South Africa’s biodiversity, and are estimated to cover roughly 10% of the country.
Despite active and costly clearing programmes they are still spreading at a rate of 5 – 10% per year.
The value chain begins with the clearing of invasive alien plants (as pictured below) which endanger the natural fynbos eco-system and the livelihoods associated with it.
Clearing also mitigates against the increased incidence of wildfires and improves water security by rehabilitating riparian zones.
The resulting biomass is developed into different products, such as wood chips, firewood,, poles, pallets, crates and extruded logs.
Part of the revenue stream flows up the value chain back to the work in the field. This allows crucial initial invasive alien clearing, follow up clearing,
and rehabilitation of the natural fynbos environment to both pay for itself (resulting in independence from donor or government funding)
and to provide long-term employment opportunities for local communities involved in the value chains.
BLACK WATTLE
SPIDERGUM EUCALYPTUS
Myrtle
SILKY HAKEA
CLUSTER PINE
FLOWERING GUM EUCALYPTUS
Long-leaf Wattle
PORT JACKSON
The composition of different types of invasive alien plants determines the kind of practical product application for which it can be used. Very few plants have no use.
The ingenuity is in finding out what those uses are and how they can be made to add value where there was none before -
for example, replacing plastic micro-fibres in structural mixes with plant fibres. We work with all manner of contributors worldwide so as not to reinvent the wheel,
but rather fine-tune solutions for our specific use.
This offers an opportunity to create local jobs, with the potential to rapidly expand in a symbiotic and circular fashion –
thereby creating further jobs in the development of other green value chains.
We don’t work in isolation, but with various partners
in the Agulhas Biodiversity Initiative to find
green economy solutions to invasive alien plants.
Our flagship project is bolstered by a citizen science campaign, enabling ordinary people to help us map and track invasive alien biomass.
Our Invasive Alien Plant Spotter app makes it easy for landowners, conservation partners, cyclists, hikers, and any other outdoor person to log basic
information about invasive alien plants that they come across.
Get involved in our mapping and tracking campaign! Your field observations are valuable.
Currently the app is only for use in the Western Cape Province, South Africa.