East Africa’s biodiversity is under threat from the spread of Invasive Alien Plants (IAP), which can have a dramatic impact on biodiversity, crop and pasture production, human and animal health, water resources, and economic development, especially in developing countries. Despite the severity of the threat, in the developing world there is little to no information available about the presence, distribution, or potential impacts of invasive species. The major barriers to effective IAP management include a lack of policy or implementation, a lack of awareness, and limited capacity. This lack of information can be a barrier to development and implementation of effective management strategies. In much of the developing world there are no invasive species inventories or tools which interested and affected parties can use to identify invasive plants.

This project helps to fill these knowledge gaps in IAP management by cleaning and making available through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility one of Africa’s most complete and current datasets on IAP species. This dataset was collected as part of a prior phase of this project and contains approximately 120,000 locality records of IAP species in eastern Africa, Malawi, and Zambia.

1. Clean and make available 120,000 records of IAP species in Eastern Africa, Malawi, and Zambia. ​
2. Publish the data on GBIF in the “occurrence-only” level. ​
3. Print and distribute 1000 Field Guides to the Naturalized and Invasive Plants of Eastern Africa to partners in Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.​

• Over 120,000 observation records, covering over 750 species, and representing some of the best available data on invasive plants in Eastern Africa, Malawi, and Zambia cleaned and published on GBIF.​
• Increased use of the Field Guide to the Naturalized and Invasive Plants of Eastern Africa for IAP plant identification in the classroom, laboratory, and field.

This project will ensure that agencies and scientists who work on the research and control of invasive plants are able to access and use the most complete and current datasets of IAP species in Eastern Africa, Malawi, and Zambia. Additionally, use of the field guides will allow users to to identify species in the field and contribute additional information on their distributions. This information is invaluable when undertaking eco‐climatic modeling, risk assessments, and development of invasive species management plans. The increased understanding brought about by this project will allow for the development and implementation of scientifically sound management strategies for responding to invasive alien species.​ Furthermore, publishing of this dataset could serve to inspire other researchers or institutions to similarly publish their own datasets to an open source platform, thereby catalyzing growth in data sharing.

• Endorsement was received from GBIF and Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) to publish data.
• 1,000 hardcopies of the “Guide to the Naturalized and Invasive Plants of Eastern Africa” Field Guide have been printed and distributed in Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.
• An e-book of the “Guide to the Naturalized and Invasive Plants of Eastern Africa” Field Guide has been published.
• 120,000 records of Invasive Alien Species (IAS) datasets covering approximately 75 species were cleaned before the proposed target date. After cleaning the datasets were reduced to about 76,700 records.
• 76,700 records of invasive plants have been published to GBIF.
• Metadata for about 76,700 IAS datasets have been generated using the GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit.

This project contributed to invasion biology at a national, regional, and global level. Works resulting from this project are being read and cited, and the increase in awareness of invasive plants in the region is expected to lead to conservation action. Surveys were challenging at times due to poor infrastructure and security concerns, which resulted in unavoidable data gaps, but the most challenging aspect of the project was shipment and importation of the Field Guides. Unexpectedly high import duties in Tanzania were resolved, but unfortunately the same issue in Kenya could not be and the Field Guides were instead carried by project staff traveling from the UK to Kenya one box at a time. Through these challenges, the team learned the best techniques, methodologies, and budget strategies to apply to similar efforts elsewhere.

Shackleton, R.T., Witt, A.B.R., Nunda, W., Richardson, D.M. 2016 Chromolaena odorata (Siam weed) in eastern Africa: Distribution and socio-ecological impacts. Biological Invasions 19(4): 1285-1298 DOI 10.1007/s10530-016-1338-4. (link)

Shackleton, R.T., Witt, A.B.R., Aool, W., Pratt, C. 2017 Distribution of the invasive alien weed, Lantana camara, and its ecological and livelihood impacts in eastern Africa. African Range and Forage Science 1-11. http://dx.doi.org/10.2989/10220119.2017.1301551 (link)

Shackleton, R.T., Witt, A.B.R., Piroris, F.M., van Wilgen, B.W. 2017 A survey of the distribution and perceptions of the socio-economic and ecological impacts of the invasive alien cactus Opuntia stricta in East Africa. Biological Invasions 19(8): 2427-2441. DOI 10.1007/s10530-017-1453-x (link)

Witt, A.B.R., Kiambi, S., Beale, T., van Wilgen, B.W. 2017 A preliminary assessment of the extent and potential impacts of alien plant invasions in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, East Africa.  Koedoe 59(1) a1426. https:// doi.org/10.4102/koedoe. v59i1.1426 (link)

Witt, A.B.R., Beale, T., van Wilgen, B.W. 2018 An assessment of the distribution and potential ecological impacts of invasive alien plant species in eastern Africa, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa, 73:3, 217-236, DOI: 10.1080/0035919X.2018.1529003 (link)

Witt, A.B.R., Shackleton, R.T., Beale, T., Nunda, W. & Van Wilgen, B.W., 2019, ‘Distribution of invasive alien Tithonia (Asteraceae) species in eastern and southern Africa and the socio-ecological impacts of T. diversifolia in Zambia’, Bothalia 49(1), a2356. https://doi.org/10.4102/abc.v49i1.2356 (link)

Witt, A., Chimphepo, L., Beale, T., & Nunda, W. 2020, ‘Distribution of Mimosa diplotricha in eastern and southern Africa and its socioecological impacts in northern Malawi’, Bothalia, African Biodiversity & Conservation, 50(1). https://doi.org/10.38201/btha.abc.v50.i1.9 (link)

Witt, A.B., Floyd, K.S., Nunda, W., Beale, T., Shanungu, G. and Kriticos, D.J. 2020 Mimosa pigra in eastern and southern Africa: distribution and socio-ecological impacts. Austral Ecology. doi:10.1111/aec.12895  (link)

Dr. Arne Witt is an invasion biologist with 20 years of experience in Invasive Alien Species (IAS) management with emphasis on the biological control of invasive plants. Dr. Witt is also an expert in Risk Analysis procedures, Early Detection and Rapid Response (EDRR) systems, Integrated Pest Management (IPM), awareness creation, and capacity building and conservation. He has contributed his expertise to support different biodiversity initiatives in South Africa and Kenya, with short time assignments in Uganda, Ghana, Ethiopia, Zambia, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines and Vietnam.

The JRS Biodiversity Foundation believes that elevating the value of biodiversity data will increase demand for its use by decision makers; and when they have greater access to data that is high quality, relevant, easily-accessible, and timely, they will fight to preserve biodiversity by making informed decisions about conservation and sustainable development. For this reason, JRS is very pleased to support CABI’s effort to create open global access to the remarkable dataset that Dr. Arne Witt assembled over the last five years. This is the most comprehensive data set on invasive plants of East Africa and we look forward to its access and use for conservation and research.  The project, Arne Witt, and his collaborators have produced a remarkable series of papers related to the data and proposed solutions for the control of invasive plants.  We look forward to watching the impact of this important work unfold over time.