Abstract ID: 3.13405 | Accepted as Poster | Talk | TBA | TBA

When invasive plants invade vulnerable grasslands, it is important to ascertain how both natural ecological and human-driven processes can either facilitate or hamper the spread of the plants. The eastern Free State, located within one of the last extensive grassland biomes in the world, is dominated by people dependent on agriculture to sustain their livelihoods. This region is known to host invasive plants like the black (Acacia mearnsii) and silver (Acacia dealbata) wattles, which benefit local livelihoods in other parts of the country. Possibly, people in this region may have also recognised the benefits as well as threats posed by invasive wattles. However, the social dimensions of wattle dispersal in this mountain grassland have not been studied, and we do not know how local rural communities respond to perceived benefits or suffer from the presence of these invasive trees. It also remains unclear how rural communities can increase or decrease the spread of invasive wattles. Hence, we investigated the rural mountain community perceptions and uses of wattle trees to understand the potential influence on the spread of the black and silver wattles in the eastern Free State region. To achieve this, we conducted interviews with seven focus groups of stakeholders that included local residents in Qwaqwa and Harrismith, and managers of two protected areas (Golden Gate Highlands National Park and the Harrismith Botanical Gardens) in the eastern Free State. The focus groups involved ten to fifteen participants who were recruited through Purposive and Snowball sampling. The interviews involved open-ended questions, categorised into knowledge, attitude, mapping, and solutions regarding the invasive wattles in the region. We used a thematic analysis to generate themes based on the responses from the groups. Thereafter, we overlayed the community participatory maps using ArcGIS. Our results included themes that highlighted the benefits (uses), challenges (Socioeconomic impacts), current wattle invaded areas, predictions of future wattle invasion, and the existing indigenous strategies for wattle control in the eastern Free State. We advocate the importance of community perceptions and knowledge as a starting point for the effective management of invasive wattles in the region.