B-Cubed partners from South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and Stellenbosch University researched the impact of biological invasions in South Africa and have proposed new workflows and indicators for better management of Invasive Alien Species (IAS).
Their work is related to B-Cubed’s case study on The status of biological invasions and their management in South Africa in 2025, which aims to revise South Africa’s national indicator framework for biological invasions and provide automation and standardisation of the process for species and site indicators that require spatial data.
South Africa’s national indicator framework was promulgated in 2014 and mandates a triennial process of national reports on the status and management of biological invasions. The process includes the creation of a consolidated national list of alien species, which evolves over time. In 2025, three status reports have already been published, and the lessons learnt and the challenges encountered can be analysed in order to help other countries develop a national list of alien species.
As part of the status reports, a checklist for alien taxa in South Africa has been developed. While the checklist is not yet a complete baseline of knowledge of the alien taxa in South Africa, it provides information on the invasion status of the taxa, their pathways, distributions, impacts, and management, with metadata provided for all 38 variables, including confidence and data sources for 23 of them. Moreover, documented and repeatable workflows have been developed to improve the flow of information from detection to action and to allow biosecurity systems to be more responsive.
Another tool, which helps monitor and manage the biological invsions, is the impIndicator, an impact indicator of alien taxa, which uses the GBIF occurrence cube function and the EICAT assessment of alien species for visualising the potential impact per site as a map.
Read the full papers on the topic:
Zengeya TA, Faulkner KT, Mtileni MP, Wilson JRU (2025) Lessons and challenges in creating alien species lists: insights from South Africa’s national reports on the status and management of biological invasions
Fernandez Winzer L, Faulkner KT, Paap T, Wilson JRU (2025) From detection to action—a proposed workflow to ensure first reports of alien species from molecular analyses are acted upon
Zengeya TA, Faulkner KT, Mtileni MP, Fernandez Winzer L, Kumschick S, McCulloch-Jones EJ, Miza-Tshangana SA, Robinson TB, Sifuba A, Engelbrecht W, van Wilgen BW, Wilson JRU (2025) A checklist of alien taxa for South Africa
