The IAP problem
Invasive alien plants (IAPs) are highly adaptable, vigorous growers that invade a wide range of indigenous ecosystems and soak up precious water resources.
IAPs seriously threaten our indigenous biodiversity because they:
- Have invaded twenty million hectares of land (or an area twice the size of KwaZulu-Natal).
- Use 3.3 billion cubic metres of water more than their indigenous counterparts, reducing South Africa’s water resources (they consume about 7% of the total water resources in the country).
- Threaten our rich biodiversity by replacing indigenous and endemic vegetation. This will result in a loss of insect species that are dependent on these plants and the ripple-effect loss of the birds, reptiles and mammals that feed on those insects.
- Invade land better used for crops and livestock grazing.
- Are often toxic to people and livestock.
Our Goals
We have grouped all our activities on invasive alien eradication under the Alien Busters Project.
The Vision for this project is as follows:
“Kloof/Forest Hills will be Invasive Alien Plant free suburbs”
To achieve this vision we have set the following goals:
Goal 1
To fund an ongoing process to remove Invasive Alien Plants on all street verges and public land in Kloof/Forest Hills.
Goal 2
To use initiatives such as the Indigenous Open Gardens show, Biodiversity Talks, media releases and other means to encourage all property owners in Kloof/Forest Hills to have Invasive Alien Plant free gardens.
An Appeal for Action
In 2012 Kloof Conservancy embarked on a renewed campaign eradicate IAPs from public land including verges and also to motivate and encourage all residents to eradicate IAPs from their properties and replace them with indigenous plants.
The new campaign was in part inspired from an appeal we received from one of our members. The appeal offers a detailed rationale, from different fields and various perspectives, for the eradication of IAPs and their replacement by indigenous plants.
We strongly support the sentiments conveyed in this appeal which you can download from the following link: Download an Appeal for Action