Inva’Ziles project - SIF continues fight against invasive plants in Vallée de Mai |23 January 2018

Invasive plants pose serious threats to the biodiversity of the Vallée de Mai because they colonise habitats rapidly, outcompete native plants, and exclude native animals.

As such, since 2012 with the launch of the EU project, SIF has worked intensively on controlling more than ten invasive plants in the Vallée de Mai using a combination of different control methods (herbicide application, drilling, ring barking etc.)

A few of these introduced species have been removed entirely from the Vallée de Mai and many previously common invasives have been controlled and their populations substantially reduced.

The continuation of management on these invasive plants was mainstreamed into the Vallée de Mai workplan.

On a monthly basis, the research team continues to control selected plants and importantly undertake ‘tree checks’ to evaluate the status of the controlled trees – information which then contributes to assessing the effectiveness of control methods used per species.

SIF is extending the scope of the existing programme under the Inva’Ziles project by tackling new plant species and determining the best control methods for lesser known but equally problematic invasives including the Liana Epipremnum pinnatum (philodendron).

Work on some of these species are progressing remarkably and while a few years ago philodendron had invaded many parts of the Vallée de Mai, using some innovative techniques and a great team effort from Vallée de Mai staff, currently only few isolated patches of the creeper remains in the forest.

With SIF targeting not only invasive plants but also rats, tenrecs and yellow crazy ants in the Vallée de Mai as part of the Inva’Ziles, we expect that if successful, the project will bring ecosystem level benefits to the nature reserve.