Biological Invasion Policy and Legislation Development and Implementation in South Africa

Abstract

This Chapter describes and reviews the evolving biological invasion policy and legislation development and its implementation in South Africa over approximately the last 160 years. Despite the lack of formal, published government policy on biological invasions, there has been an almost continuous process of law-making over the years, with 50 pieces of being passed since the Xanthium Spinosum Act of 1861. The fundamental legal approach has changed little over this time, with a strong preference for what we have called the 'identify and direct' approach-a 'problem' species is identified and specific people are directed to deal with that species in a specified way. The concept of 'faultless liability' often associated with this approach has been equally resilient (e.g. a landowner is held responsible for clearing invasions on their land even if they were not responsible for introducing the species to the area in the first place). The review also suggests that, from a purely biological invasion management perspective, the South African 'job-provision' policy driver that has dominated biological invasion management activities since the new democratic dispensation in 1994 may have some perverse impacts in the absence of formal biological invasion policy. One of the key conclusions (with the proviso that biological invasions are indeed a significant threat to South African society, the economy, and the environment) is that a comprehensive evidence-based policy-making process should be instituted as a matter of urgency. It is also suggested that climate change concerns and interest in the global Sustainable Development Goals may provide the perfect 'policy-development window' for the development of formal policy on biological invasion in South Africa.