Biological invasions in the Cape Floristic Region: history, current patterns, impacts, and management challenges

Abstract

The Cape Floristic Region (CFR) is the most invaded terrestrial area in South Africa in terms of: the conspicuous prominence of (mainly woody) invasive plants (Fig 12.1, Plate 12) (Henderson 2007); the area invaded as surveyed (Kotzé et al. 2010); and the numbers of animal invaders (Picker and Griffiths 2011). At the same time its status as a globally important system for the study of plant invasions is firmly established. Tree invasions in the region provide model systems that have been influential in the development of plant invasion ecology; in particular work on pine species (Richardson et al. 1994) and Australian acacias (Richardson et al. 2011). In fact, the observation of alien trees invading pristine fynbos shows that widespread invasions are not, as suggested by Charles Elton, confined to ecosystems markedly altered by human activities (Elton 1958). This provided part of the stimulus for a major international programme on invasions in the 1980s funded by the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment.