Invasive Alien Plants
Impacts on Development and Options for Management

Invasive alien plants pose a major threat to agriculture, the natural environment and livelihoods worldwide and create challenges for development. This is especially the case for those who live and work in rural areas. This book, for the first time, brings together a wide range of invasive plant specialists from the Asia-Pacific region who shares their experience in addressing the problem and delivering solutions. Mikania micrantha is used as case study in the book as it exemplifies many of the issues that need to be addressed. This neotropical vine is a major weed across the tropical humid zones of the region, where it smothers agroforestry, home gardens, natural forests and plantation production systems.

The book emphasises the social and economic implications of plant invasion, and discusses direct impacts on livelihoods and biodiversity. It explains how various approaches to management including traditional ecological knowledge and classical biological control can be keys to the delivery of sustainable solutions, focusing on experiences in India, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and China. The use of policy frameworks in biological control and other management measures are also described.

- 1: Invasive Alien Plants as a Constraint to Development in Tropical Asia: Is There a Crisis in the Making?
- 2: Profile of an Invasive Plant: Mikania micrantha
- 3: Social and Economic Implications of Mikania micrantha in the Kerala Western Ghats
- 4: Impacts and Management Options for Mikania micrantha in Plantations
- 5: Mikania micrantha: Its Status and Impact on People and Wildlife in Nepal
- 6: Impact and Management of Invasive Alien Plants in Pacific Island Communities
- 7: Understanding the Impact of Invasive Mikania micrantha in Shifting Agriculture and Its Management through Traditional Ecological Knowledge
- 8: Prevention and Related Measures for Invasive Alien Plants in India: Policy Framework and Other Initiatives
- 9: Control Options for Invasive Alien Plants in Agroforestry in the Asia–Pacific Region
- 10: Classical Biological Control of Mikania micrantha: the Sustainable Solution
- 11: Policy Frameworks for the Implementation of a Classical Biological Control Strategy: the Chinese Experience
- 12: Policy Frameworks for the Implementation of a Classical Biological Control Strategy: the Indian Experience