Weed biocontrol and the Working for Water Programme

 

​Most of the research activities of the Division are currently being funded by the National Resource Management Programme (NRM) of the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), formerly known as the Working for Water Programme (WfW). This Programme was created in 1995 as a poverty relief initiative of the then Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF). This Programme pays unemployed members of poor communities to clear alien invasive plants from water catchment areas and watercourses, with the two aims of safeguarding the country's water resources and the social upliftment of these communities. The Programme has contracted ARC-PPRI's Weeds Research Division to undertake research into the biological control of the most important alien invasive plants targeted by WfW. Biological control is seen as a backup mechanism, ensuring that cleared areas do not become overrun with alien invaders again as soon as the clearing teams move out of a cleared area.