Model invasions and the development of national concerns over invasive introduced trees: insights from South African history

Abstract

This article examines how invasions within a discrete geographic, cultural, and ecological context disproportionately shaped awareness of invasions in other places. Such “model invasions” have been valuable for catalyzing national and international interest in biological invasion since the 1980s. Specifically, this article traces how scientific and public perspectives of invasive introduced trees evolved in South Africa during the twentieth century. It argues that concerns about the impact of invasive introduced trees first developed in the Mediterranean-climate region of the southwestern Cape Province during the 1940s and 1950s before emerging elsewhere in South Africa during the 1970s and early 1980s. Though there has been a nation-wide convergence in scientific and public views of invasive trees since the 1980s, there are still stark geographic and cultural knowledge divergences that hinder the effectiveness of contemporary invasive tree management efforts. This study suggests that geographical knowledge imbalances between regions should not be overlooked when historicizing or planning environmental management schemes at national scales.