MENVM / Department of Ecology and Resource Management

PhD (Microbiology) / Department of Microbiology / See the attached abstract below

MESMEG / Department of Ecology and Resource Management / Invasive alien plants refer to plant species that show a tendency to escape from human control, go beyond the intended physical boundaries and cause environmental damage. The issue of letting the Invasive alien plant species grow and spread, with no attempts made to control the spread of the species beyond the limits of plantations, is not sustainable. All the attempted methods that the Department of Environmental Affairs used seemed to have failed in yielding the expected results. The main objective of the study was to determine the Wolkberg Working for Water programme’s level of success in terms of clearing invasive alien plant species. Wolkberg Project was used as a case study as it is one of the Working for Water Programme. The data were collected using random sampling methods on the worked areas, where work is in progress and those where no work has been done. Primary data were collected from land owners through field observations and questionnaires from the participants whilst secondary data were collected from the Department of Environmental Affairs. The study adopted a mixed methods approach which is both quantitative and qualitative. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) package. The research determined the level of success in terms of clearing invasive alien plant species, employment opportunities, tools/materials that have been used to clear the plants and the advice on the possible strategies that can be employed in the invasive alien plant species management. It was found out that the Invasive alien plant species require constant maintenance in order for them to be controlled. The Wolkberg project is mainly dominated by male workers compared to females. Each team comprised 3% underage workers. The study recommends that the project should make sure that the follow-ups are done at the correct time and stage. Looking at the statistics of males and females, the study revealed that transformation is not adhered to in this project. / NRF

MSc (Zoology) / Department of Zoology / See the attached abstract below

See the attached abstract below

MESHWR / Department of Hydrology and Water Resources / See the attached abstract below

MSc (Botany) / Department of Botany / Invasive alien plants (IAPs) are non-native species that have spread beyond the introduction site; become abundant to an extent that they serve as agents of change that also threaten native biological diversity (Garcia-Berthou, 2007). IAPs have medicinal applications for the treatment of various aliments in humans (Jäger et al., 1996). In this study, an ethnomedicinal survey was conducted on medicinal uses of invasive alien plant species in order to identify and investigate the various disease treatment methods employed by Bapedi traditional health practitioners within Capricorn District. Six traditional health practitioners were randomly selected, via the snowball method from each of the five local municipalities namely: Aganang, Blouberg, Lepelle-Nkupi, Molomole and Polokwane. The whole survey included 30 traditional health practitioners. A semi structured questionnaire was administered to document information about the medicinal uses of IAPs from participants. The collected data from the questionnaire was captured in Microsoft Excel 2010 and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study recorded 22 IAPs belonging to 14 plant families. Records or data collected show invasive alien plants species to have been used for treatment of different alignments amongst Bapedi traditional health practitioners. Plant families with the most recorded species include: Solanaceae and Myrtaceae with 18.2% for both of them. The plant parts most frequently used in descending order were as follows: roots vii (40%), followed by the leaves (39%), fruits (7%), thorns (6%), bark (4%), seeds (2%) and lastly stems (2%). Decoction was recorded as the most dominant method used during medicinal preparations (n = 176) and flu was recorded as the most treated ailment amongst traditional health practitioners (n = 29). Apart from clearing IAPs as part of management strategy by South African government, there are other alternative innovative ways that can be employed to ensure that the number of IAPs introduced does not exceed beyond measure.This could be achieved by encouraging local people to use them as either medicinal sources or by incorporating them into any other local ethnobotanical use. The new innovative ways (such as traditional health practitioners utilizing the IAPs instead of endangered plants or indigenous plants species) can bring in some form of relief to the already declining indigenous species populations. Research scholars from different research institutes and higher education research centres can regard IAPs used medicinally as source of new pharmaceutical leads to create new medications. With such attention turned to alien invasive species, their survival as well as their spread will be kept on check at the same time creating a control measure to their spread with little effort. Further laboratory-based studies are needed to determine efficiency and safety of the IAPs used by traditional health practitioners in this study. / NRF